•MMIIMMM 


WITH  A 


R.ESFRVIST 

„  V  JL«*  >.«/  ,'JL.jf  &  X   y   J»  t»,J    .4 


T"^ 

I--JV    -T  t     -i      T~"v        'A      :*K     T    •>**^*    "y^e* 

N  FRANCE 


amv-^-- 


WITH  A 
RESERVIST   IN   FRANCE 


WITH    A    RESERVIST 
IN  FRANCE 

A  PERSONAL  ACCOUNT  OF  ALL  THE  ENGAGE- 
MENTS IN  WHICH  THE  IST  DIVISION  IST  CORPS 
TOOK  PART,  VIZ.  :  MONS  (INCLUDING  THE 
RETIREMENT),  THE  MARNE,  THE  AISNE,  FIRST 
BATTLE  OF  YPRES,  NEUVE  CHAPELLE,  FESTUBERT, 

AND  LOOS 

BY 

F.    A.    BOLWELL 


I  4 


WITH  SIX  SKETCH  MAPS  BY  THE  AUTHOR 


LONDON  : 

GEORGE     ROUTLEDGE    &    SONS,    LTD. 
NEW     YORK:    E.    P.     BUTTON     &    CO. 


A 


»••.-•  • 

•   >          I      •  « 

*  . 

•  .*       ,  '  \ •  '  • 


TO 

THE     LATE    COLONEL    KNIGHT 

AND  OFFICERS  OF  THE  LOYAL 

NORTH   LANCASHIRE 


d  v  o  oo 

*-  —     •  c.-  O 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

I.       THE    CALL,    AND    THE    START          -             -  1 

II.       THE    LANDING    IN    FRANCE  9 

III.  THE    RETIREMENT                     -             -             -  21 

IV.  THE    BATTLE    OF   THE    MARNE                       -  35 
V.       THE    BATTLE    OF   THE   AISNE                         -  45 

VI.       THE    FIRST    BATTLE    OF    YPRES  67 

VII.       THE      FIGHT      ON      THE       BIPSCHOOTE- 
LANGEMARCK  ROAD,    OCTOBER   23RD, 

1914  -  73 

VIII.       LA   BASSEE   DISTRICT  115 
IX.       THE  BATTLE  OF   FESTUBERT,    MAY   9TH, 

1915  ------  135 

x.     LOOS       ------  147 


LIST    OF    MAPS 


1.  The  Fight  on  the  Marne,  Sept.  10th,  1914             .  on  page  39 

2.  Battle  of  the  Aisne,  Sept.  14th,  1914          .  „  49 

3.  Ypres,  First  Battle              .            .            .  ,,  71 

4.  Rough  Sketch  of  the  Fight  on  the  Bipschoote- 

Langemarck  Road           .             .             .  ,,  77 

5.  The  La  Basse"e  Front          ....,,  119 

6.  Rough  Sketch  showing  Attack  at  Loos      .            .  ,,  151 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    CALL,    AND   THE   START 


CHAPTER   I 

THE   CALL,    AND    THE    START 

BEING  a  Reservist,  I  was  naturally  called  to  the 
colours  on  the  outbreak  of  war  between  England 
and  Germany  on  August  4th,  1914,  so  I  downed 
tools  ;  and,  although  a  married  man  with  two 
children,  I  was  only  too  pleased  to  be  able  to  leave 
a  more  or  less  monotonous  existence  for  something 
more  exciting  and  adventurous.  Being  an  old 
soldier,  war  was  of  course  more  or  less  ingrained  into 
my  nature,  and  during  those  few  days  before  the 
final  declaration  I  was  at  fever  heat  and  longing  to 
be  away. 

As  all  the  world  knows,  war  was  declared  on  the 
fourth,  which  was  a  sign  for  all  reservists  to  present 
themselves  at  the  post  offices  throughout  the 
country,  there  to  procure  their  travelling  allowance 
and  proceed  to  the  depot  named  by  the  authorities 
on  each  Identity  Life  Certificate.  This  I  accord- 
ingly did  early  on  the  following  morning.  Late  on 
the  night  before  the  General  Mobilization  notices 

3  B2 


4  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

had  been  posted  up  outside  all  newspaper  offices 
and  public  buildings. 

I  had  rather  a  long  journey  before  me,  having  to 
go  from  a  town  on  the  South  Coast,  where  I  then 
resided,  to  a  town  in  Lancashire,  that  being  the 
depot  of  my  Regiment.  During  the  journey  to 
London  I  had  a  conversation  with  a  clergyman,  and 
of  course  the  topic  was  war.  We  agreed  that  it 
could  not  last  for  any  length  of  time,  and  I  remem- 
ber telling  him  that  I  was  going  to  try  and  get  a 
soft  job,  and  that  I  expected  to  have  a  nice  holiday. 
Little  did  I  think  what  was  in  store  for  me  ! 
Waterloo  and  Euston  were  packed  to  suffocation, 
men  flocking  to  the  colours  from  all  parts  of  the 
country.  The  excitement  was  intense,  and  the 
scenes  being  enacted  partially  carried  away  my 
thoughts  of  sorrow  at  leaving  home. 

That  evening  I  arrived  at  my  depot,  and,  after 
reporting  myself  at  the  Guard  Room,  made  my  way 
toward  the  block  of  buildings  which  my  unit 
occupied,  these  particular  barracks  being  the  depots 
of  three  units. 

I  met  on  arrival  several  old  faces,  and,  after  re- 
newing our  acquaintances,  I  there  and  then  fell  in 
with  a  batch  of  men  going  up  for  medical  inspection. 
We  were  then  examined  by  two  doctors  very 


THE  CALL,   AND  THE  START  5 

thoroughly.  The  next  place  to  visit  was  the  Quarter 
Master's  Stores,  there  to  be  fitted  up  with  uniform, 
equipment,  etc.  After  that,  as  it  was  quite  dark, 
we  retired  for  the  night,  but  not  before  we  had  all 
taken  advantage  of  a  little  refreshment  kindly 
supplied  by  some  ladies  who  had  come  forward  to 
release  men  employed  in  preparing  food  for  work 
in  the  stores.  That  evening  a  party  of  500  men 
had  been  sent  to  join  the  Home  Battalion  then 
stationed  at  Alder  shot. 

Next  day  a  similar  body  of  men  had  become  fit 
to  be  sent  away,  and  I  proceeded  with  them  to  the 
First  Battalion  at  Aldershot. 

On  arrival,  we  were  placed  into  Companies  and 
Platoons.  Most  of  us  had  left  the  service  some 
years  ago,  and  had  no  idea  of  the  existing  new 
formations.  One  man,  on  being  asked  by  an 
Officer  where  his  Platoon  was,  replied  :  "  I  don't 
know,  sir.  I  haven't  got  it  on  me." 

However,  after  a  week  at  Aldershot,  we  were 
pretty  well  knocked  into  shape,  and  had  also  been 
fixed  up  in  accounts  and  allowances,  and  other 
details.  We  also  had  a  lecture  on  inoculation  by 
the  Medical  Officer,  who  hoped  that  every  man 
would  consent  to  be  operated  on.  Another  and 
more  interesting  speech  was  given  by  the 


6  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

Commanding  Officer,  Colonel  Knight,  a  man  who 
fully  realized  the  seriousness  of  the  situation  and 
evidently  had  a  good  idea  of  what  the  present  war 
would  be  like.  His  speech  was  to  this  effect  : 

"  Men  of  the  1st  Loyal  North  Lancashire 
Regiment  !  I  wish  to  bring  home  to  you  the  fact 
that  we  have  a  hard  task  before  us.  We  are  out  to 
fight  a  great  nation  and  men  who  are  out  for  blood. 
This  Regiment  have  always  been  top-dogs  even 
with  the  boys  '  (meaning  time-serving  men  :  they 
had  that  year  won  nine  football  cups  out  of  a 
possible  eleven,  besides  other  sporting  competi- 
tions). "  What  are  we  going  to  do  now  that  we  have 
the  men  ?  "  (meaning  the  Reservists).  "  None  of  you 
men  will  come  back — nor  the  next  lot — nor  the 
next  after  that — nor  the  next  after  that  again  ;  but 
some  of  the  next  might.  But  we'll  give  those  Ger- 
mans something  to  go  on  with,  and  we'll  give  a 
good  account  of  ourselves  !  Remember,  men,  the 
eyes  of  the  whole  world  will  be  upon  us,  and  I  know 
that  you  will  perform  whatever  task  is  allotted  to 
you,  like  men." 

We  were  then  interviewed  by  the  King  and  the 
Queen  ;  and,  later  in  the  day,  proceeded  to  Farn- 
borough  Station  en  route  for  Southampton,  arriving 
that  night,  every  one  and  everything  being 


THE  CALL,   AND  THE  START  7 

embarked  by  11.30  p.m.  No  one  of  course  knew  for 
what  port  we  were  bound,  though  many  suggested 
Belgium. 

We  had  no  "  send  off  "  whatsoever  ;  no  shaking 
hands  or  wet  handkerchiefs — any  one  not  knowing  a 
war  had  been  declared  would  have  had  no  sus- 
picion that  these  men  were  starting  out  on  active 
service.  Yet  every  one  was  jolly  ;  every  one  was 
happy.  They  put  us  aboard  an  old  China  boat,  and 
stuffed  us  into  the  holds  almost  to  suffocation,  with 
one  large  electric  light  burning  in  a  distant  corner  : 
it  was  most  unhealthy.  After  an  hour  one  could 

v 

have  cut  the  air  with  a  knife. 

No  sooner  had  we  left  our  moorings  than  we  ran 
down  a  lighter,  killing  one  man  on  her  and  knocking 
a  big  hole  in  her  side.  None  of  us  below  had  the 
slightest  idea  of  what  was  happening  ;  all  we  heard 
was  an  awful  noise,  with  the  lowering  of  the  anchor. 
We  all  declared  that  we  had  been  either  mined  or 
torpedoed ;  but  after  a  while  things  quietened 
down,  and  we  all  tried  to  obtain  a  little  sleep. 

There  had  been  issued  out  to  us  on  starting  seven- 
pound  tins  of  jam  with  our  other  rations.  One 
was  placed  near  the  spot  I  had  made  for  myself  to 
sleep  in.  It  was  one  of  the  darkest  parts  of  the 
hold  ;  and,  being  tired,  I  was  soon  fast  asleep.  On 


8  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

awakening  next  morning,  to  my  horror  I  found 
myself  covered  from  head  to  foot  in  jam — a  sorry 
plight  indeed,  as  we  were  not  allowed  to  carry  more 
kit  than  what  we  stood  up  in.  However,  after 
fighting  for  a  few  drops  of  cold  tea,  which  had  to 
satisfy  me  for  a  breakfast,  and  an  hour  in  the  sun 
and  wind  on  deck,  I  had  become  perfectly  dry,  but 
my  clothes  were  as  stiff  as  a  board.  All  I  could  do 
was  to  cheerfully  declare  that  at  any  rate  my 
armour  was  perhaps  more  bullet-proof  than  before. 
Having  set  sail  on  the  eleventh  of  August,  we 
arrived  at  Le  Havre  on  the  morning  of  the  twelfth, 
after  a  journey  of  twelve  hours. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE    LANDING    IN    FRANCE 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   LANDING   IN   FRANCE 

AT  Le  Havre  we  were  met  by  two  men  of  the 
French  Army,  who  to  our  unaccustomed  eyes  ap- 
peared very  strange  in  their  red  trousers  and  blue 
coats.  We  promptly  dubbed  them  "  The  Panto- 
mime Army."  They  were  to  act  as  our  inter- 
preters, and  came  forward  with  their  credentials  to 
the  C.O. 

After  disembarking  our  transport,  etc.,  we  were 
marched,  through  the  docks,  on  to  the  dock  road, 
there  to  hang  about  all  day  long,  amusing  ourselves 
as  best  we  could.  A  sentry  was  posted  to  stop  any 
man  from  going  into  the  town,  but  we  were  allowed 
to  let  civilians  bring  us  provisions. 

At  nightfall  we  were  formed  up,  and  marched  by 
way  of  the  sea-front  through  the  town  and  away  up 
a  steep  hill  at  the  back,  where  we  found  a  camp 
already  pitched  for  us.  That  march  and  landing  I 
shall  ever  remember,  and  so  will  all  those  who  took 
part  in  it.  We  were  among  the  first  English  troops 

11 


12  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

of  the  Expeditionary  Force  to  put  foot  on  French 
soil,  and  the  excitement  was  great.  Over  the 
whole  of  the  distance  we  travelled  we  were  hemmed 
in  by  crowds  shouting  Vive  rAngleterre !  Often 
they  broke  our  ranks  to  embrace  us.  We  stayed 
only  the  one  night  at  Le  Havre,  and  recommenced 
our  journey  on  the  night  of  the  thirteenth. 

At  Le  Havre  Railway  Station  we  were  packed 
into  horse-boxes,  36  men  and  N.C.O.'s  in  each  box, 
the  total  often  reaching  nearly  50  men.  In  that 
condition  we  travelled  the  whole  of  the  night,  and 
the  next  day  passed  through  St.  Amiens,  Rouen, 
and  Arras.  At  each  place  we  had  a  wonderful 
reception — especially  at  Arras,  where  the  Mairie 
and  other  Civic  officials  turned  out  with  bouquets 
of  flowers  for  the  Officers  ;  and  there  was  a  Guard  of 
Honour  of  French  troops.  The  free  giving  of 
chocolates  and  sweets  by  the  populace  was  indeed 
very  gratifying  to  us  :  it  made  us  feel  more  eager 
for  the  work  which  was  to  follow. 

That  night  (the  fourteenth  of  August)  we  detrained 
at  a  village  called  Le  Nouvain.  It  had  come  on  to 
rain,  and  we  were  very  pleased  to  find  our  billets 
situated  in  a  large  schoolhouse  with  plenty  of  clean 
fresh  straw  for  our  beds.  On  the  morning  of  the 
fifteenth  we  marched  out  in  Brigade  order,  as  we 


THE   LANDING  IN  FRANCE  13 

always  did  on  every  occasion  afterwards.  My 
Brigade,  which  was  the  2nd,  commanded  then  by 
Brigadier  General  Bulfin,  consisted  of  the  2nd 
King's  Royal  Rifles,  2nd  Northampton  Regiment, 
2nd  Royal  Sussex  Regiment,  and  1st  Loyal  North 
Lancashire  Regiment,  each  Brigade  consisting  of 
four  line  Battalions.  A  smarter  body  of  men,  all 
seasoned  soldiers,  one  could  not  wish  to  meet  (the 
average  of  their  service  was  not  less  than  five  years, 
all  the  younger  recruits  having  been  left  behind  in 
England  as  peace  details).  Our  destination  for 
that  day  at  any  rate  was  not  a  distant  one  ;  we 
proceeded  only  to  a  small  village  called  Esquerries, 
not  more  than  three  miles  off.  There  we  again 
went  into  billets  for  four  days.  On  arrival  at  the 
farm  at  which  I  was  billeted,  the  farmer's  wife  on 
seeing  us  broke  into  tears — she  thought  that  we 
were  the  Germans  !  But,  I  am  pleased  to  say,  the 
good  woman,  and  her  good  man  too,  were  more  up- 
set when  we  left,  on  account  of  having  become  so 
much  attached  to  us. 

We  spent  those  four  days  in  route  marches  ;  and 
all  men  under  the  age  of  twenty-five  years  were 
then  inoculated.  The  hard  part  of  that  stay  was 
that  no  man  was  allowed  to  write  home  giving  his 
whereabouts,  or  even  to  head  the  letter  with  his 


14  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

name  or  Regiment.  Of  course  no  Field  Service 
post-cards  had  been  issued  at  that  time. 

On  the  morning  of  the  eighteenth  we  bade  good- 
bye to  Esquerries,  and  continued  in  a  three-days' 
rush  up-country  to  Mons.  The  first  day  we 
covered  something  like  sixteen  miles,  and  came  to 
rest  in  the  usual  farm-buildings.  Before  we  set  off 
the  next  day,  any  man  who  thought  that  he  would 
not  be  able  to  perform  the  task  before  us  was 
required  to  give  in  his  name  to  the  Officer  Com- 
manding Companies.  I  believe  we  had  two  sent 
back,  one  with  a  troublesome  leg  through  a  break, 
and  the  other  returned  by  the  Brigadier  on  account 
of  his  very  low  stature.  He  did  not  think  that  he 
would  be  able  to  accomplish  any  forced  marches  we 
might  have  to  undergo.  That  day  we  did  a  matter 
of  twenty  miles. 

On  the  third  day  out  we  passed  through  Mau- 
berge.  We  had  only  covered  some  seven  miles 
when  a  halt  was  called  and  we  lay  on  the  right  of 
the  road  for  six  hours.  While  there  we  were  told 
that  a  force  of  about  30,000  Germans  was  on  our 
front,  and  the  Cavalry  had  gone  out  on  a  reconnais- 
sance. 

At  5  o'clock  they  marched  us  into  billets,  but  we 
had  not  been  settled  more  than  an  hour  and  a  half 


THE  LANDING  IN  FRANCE  15 

when  a  Staff  Officer  came  galloping  up  with  orders 
to  move  at  once.  About  four  miles  from  Mauberge 
we  could  hear  a  distant  boom  of  a  gun,  and  all  lines 
of  communication  had  been  cut.  A  halt  was  called 
in  the  centre  of  Mauberge  for  one  hour,  and  we 
were  told  that  no  man  was  to  eat  his  "  iron 
ration,"  i.e.  emergency  ration,  or  drink  any  of  the 
water  which  he  carried  in  his  water-bottle,  as  we 
were  expecting  to  go  into  action  and  probably  should 
not  get  the  supplies  up  for  four  days.  On  we  went, 
and  marched  for  two  hours  without  a  minute's  rest. 
The  men  began  to  tire,  and  their  cry  became  the 
opposite  to  that  with  which  we  set  out.  Then  it 
was,  "  Are  we  down-hearted  ?  '  now  it  had  be- 
come, "  Dump  us  in  a  field  ! ' 

After  another  hour  we  had  passed  the  outer  forts 
of  Mauberge,  and  were  feeling  our  way  very 
cautiously.  Suddenly  we  would  go  on  with  a  rush  ; 
then  more  slowly  ;  and  this  sort  of  thing  continued 
until  2  a.m.  We  had  had  no  real  rest  since  6  a.m. 
the  day  before  ;  but  at  length  we  arrived  at  a  small 
village  south  of  Mons,  where  we  found  billets,  one 
company  of  my  Regiment  going  further  on  to  find 
outpost  duty.  Thankful  I  was  not  to  be  in  that 
company  ! 

Our  rest  did  not  last  very  long.     Arriving  in  as 


16  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

we  did  at  2  a.m.,  we  were  brought  out  again  at  3.30 
a.m.,  with  a  remark  from  the  Colonel  that  we  were 

a  lazy  lot  of .  Some  of  us  could  barely  crawl, 

being  stiff  and  chafed  from  our  long  march  of 
nearly  thirty-five  miles — not  bad  for  one  day,  con- 
sidering that  we  were  fully  equipped. 

Our  next  move  was  to  a  field  two  miles  off.  We 
were  moved  so  early  from  the  last  place  because  it 
was  thought  advisable  to  shift  us  before  daybreak, 
owing  to  the  probability  of  its  being  shelled  by  the 
Germans.  In  this  field  the  morning  was  occupied 
by  feet  and  rifle  inspection.  A  German  aeroplane 
came  over  us,  and  we  were  all  ordered  to  line  the 
hedges  and  seek  cover,  which  we  did  in  quick 
time. 

During  the  afternoon  we  moved  higher  up  to- 
ward the  enemy,  staying  in  another  village  for  a 
few  hours.  We  were  put  into  another  schoolhouse, 
which  was  well  stocked  with  vegetables  in  the 
garden,  so  we  set  about  preparing  for  ourselves  an 
enjoyable  repast.  Just  on  our  front  the  batteries 
were  in  action,  and,  whilst  awaiting  our  dinner,  we 
sat  upon  the  wall  of  the  school  and  watched  the 
duel.  It  was  a  glorious  sight  !  A  flock  of  birds 
in  the  distance  was  mistaken  by  all  of  us  for  a 
Zeppelin  through  the  haze.  We  were,  however, 


THE   LANDING   IN   FRANCE  17 

doomed  to  go  without  the  big  dinner  we  had 
promised  ourselves,  as  we  were  given  our  marching 
orders  and  wrere  off  before  it  was  cooked. 

On  forming  up  with  the  remainder  of  the  Brigade, 
we  were  ordered  to  charge  magazine,  with  one 
round  in  the  breach  also.  Things  began  to  look 
exciting,  and  in  their  agitation  a  few  men  let  their 
rifles  go  off,  narrowly  missing  their  comrades.  We 
then  advanced  through  an  avenue  for  a  mile  at  the 
double,  when  the  word  was  given  to  halt  and  lie 
down,  no  smoking  and  no  talking,  as  we  were  now 
in  support  to  the  South  Staffords  on  our  front,  who 
were  expected  to  retire  through  us  at  any  minute. 
After  laying  there  the  whole  of  the  night,  and  hav- 
ing the  Pioneer  Sergeant  run  over  by  a  pair  of  mules 
attached  to  an  ammunition  limber,  we  were  not 
required  !  All  we  got  for  our  night  out  was  the  loss 
of  the  Pioneer  Sergeant,  with  two  broken  ribs,  and 
one  other  man  injured.  It  had  been  a  pitch-black 
night,  and  we  had  not  noticed  a  trench  just  off  the 
road  filled  with  straw,  where  we  could  have  rested 
our  aching  limbs. 

As  soon  as  daybreak  appeared,  we  were  ordered 
off  that  road  ;  and  we  had  no  sooner  left  it  than  it 
was  heavily  shelled.  We  dug  some  more  trenches 
that  same  day  and  retired  from  them  just  before 

c 


18  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

they  were  blown  up,  so  we  were  evidently 
very  fortunate  on  the  twenty- second  of  August, 
1914. 

On  leaving  the  road,  we  retired  to  a  thicket  on 
our  left  rear,  but  quitted  it,  and  came  to  the  trenches 
aforementioned.  Two  batteries  were  just  behind 
us  there,  and  they  were  having  a  bad  time.  Also 
while  there  the  Scots  Greys,  who  were  our  brigade 
scouts,  came  in  with  a  report  of  meeting  with  a 
body  of  Uhlans.  They  had  evidently  surprised 
these  Uhlans,  and  had  given  them  a  warm  time,  the 
losses  of  the  Scots  Greys  being  only  one  man,  I 
believe,  and  two  wounded.  As  I  pointed  out  before, 
we  left  those  trenches  in  the  nick  of  time  ;  they 
were  not  the  trenches  we  have  now  in  France,  but 
only  what  we  call  "  one-man  trenches  " — very 
little  more  than  head  cover,  dug  with  our  entrench- 
ing tools  and  no  good  whatsoever  against  shell  fire. 

After  retiring  from  them  we  were  kept  on  the 
side  of  the  road  for  the  night ;  and  for  the  next  few 
days  were  rushed  from  one  position  to  another. 

Early  one  morning  we  set  off  to  guard  a 
bridge,  and,  after  going  a  mile  or  so,  we  were  again 
placed  in  a  field.  On  the  way  we  were  handed  some 
corned  beef  and  biscuits,  also  a  grocery  ration,  i.e. 
a  tin  of  tea  and  sugar  and  two  Oxo  cubes,  by  some 


THE   LANDING   IN   FRANCE  19 

A.S.C.  men  who  had  been  left  with  orders  to  issue 
them  to  troops  going  into  action.  One  of  them 
handed  me  mine  with  the  remark  :  "  You'll  need 
it,  old  man,  where  you're  going  !  '  Very  cheerful, 
I  thought. 

We  then  advanced  over  some  open  fields  in 
Artillery  formation,  the  Scots  Greys  going  first, 
probing  all  hedges  with  their  swords.  In  this  field 
we  were  told  to  line  the  hedges. 

Two  incidents  worth  relating  occur  to  my  mind  . 
one  was  the  bravery  of  one  of  our  flying-men — he 
had  just  flown  over  the  German  lines,  and  on  com- 
ing back  was  being  shelled  by  the  German  batteries 
— how  he  escaped  being  hit  I  cannot  think,  as  shells 
were  bursting  no  less  than  a  dozen  at  once  all 
around  him,  and  the  fragments  of  shells  were  drop- 
ping around  us  everywhere,  though  no  one  was  hit. 
Our  Colonel,  highly  pleased  with  the  steadiness  of 
the  aviator,  remarked  that  he  felt  proud  to  be  an 
Englishman. 

The  other  incident  occurred  in  connection  with 
an  order  of  the  C.O.  He  gave  out  that  the 
Germans  had  advanced  upon  the  Middlesex 
Regiment,  driving  the  civil  population  of  vari- 
ous villages  in  front  of  them  and  thus  screening 
themselves.  He  was  very  sorry  to  say  that,  if  it 


20  A  RESERVIST   IN  FRANCE 

was  done  to  us,  we  should  have  to  fire  upon  them, 
as  it  was  our  duty  to  those  at  home.  But  happily 
it  did  not  occur  then,  or  on  any  occasion  on  which 
I  faced  the  Germans,  so  I  was  spared  the  horror  of 
assisting  in  the  slaughter  of  women  and  children  in 
such  a  cowardly  way. 

However,  the  bridge  we  set  out  to  guard  in  the 
first  place  had,  I  believe,  been  taken  by  the  enemy, 
so  our  services  were  not  required. 

Our  fighting  experiences  at  Mons  were  not  very 
severe,  as  the  work  fell  to  the  lot  of  other  Brigades. 
The  1st  Brigade,  which  contained  two  Battalions 
of  Guards,  the  2nd  Black  Watch,  and  the  Munster 
Fusiliers,  suffered  far  more  heavily  than  did  we,  who 
were  moved  from  one  place  to  another,  mostly  in 
support.  Operating  as  we  did  chiefly  round  the 
outskirts  of  Mons,  our  casualty  list  was  very  slight. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   RETIREMENT 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   RETIREMENT 

IT  was  from  that  field  that  we  commenced  the 
great  Retirement.  My  recollections  of  the  villages 
and  towns  we  passed  through  on  our  way  are  now 
slight,  since  we  often  marched  at  night,  though  I 
have  a  clear  remembrance  of  some  of  the  larger  ones 
which  we  traversed  by  day. 

It  was  the  twenty-fourth  of  August,  on  a  blazing 
hot  afternoon,  when  we  started  upon  our  great 
task.  There  was  not  a  soul  amongst  the  Officers 
or  the  men  who  had  the  slightest  idea  as  to  what 
was  our  destination.  The  first  day  or  two  we 
tramped  along  happily  enough.  It  was  not,  I 
believe,  until  the  evening  of  the  second  day  that  we 
obtained  an  inkling  of  what  was  about  to  happen, 
when  we  found  ourselves  passing  through  the  out- 
skirts of  Mauberge  once  more.  Most  of  us  got  the 
impression  that  we  were  retiring  with  a  view  to 
taking  up  a  better  position.  A  rumour  went  the 
rounds  of  the  regiment  that  day  to  say  that  the 

28 


24  A  RESERVIST   IN  FRANCE 

C.O.  was  leaving  us  for  a  Staff  appointment ; 
and  he  did  leave  us,  but  returned  again  in  the  course 
of  the  next  few  days. 

Most  of  the  next  ten  days  remain  in  my  mind  as  a 
nightmare.  The  weather  was  exceedingly  hot,  the 
long  roads  with  stone  sets  stretching  as  far  as  eye 
could  see  were  very  wearisome,  and  the  men  were 
utterly  exhausted.  On  the  third  day  out  we  took 
prisoner  a  German  mounted  man,  with  two  others, 
one  of  whom  got  away,  and  a  second  was  shot. 

On  one  occasion,  just  before  entering  a  wood,  one 
of  our  aeroplanes  came  down  near  us,  and  the  pilot 
ran  promptly  to  the  General.  After  a  few  words, 
our  direction  was  entirely  changed.  Had  it  not 
been  for  that  aeroplane  we  should  certainly  have 
been  ambushed. 

We  marched  in  Brigades,  each  day  the  lead  being 
taken  in  turns,  the  last  Regiment  finding  rear- 
guard ;  and  the  same  thing  happened  by  Divisions, 
three  Brigades  to  a  Division,  and  each  Brigade 
taking  its  turn  to  lead.  The  Provost  Marshal  and 
Military  Police  went  on  in  front  to  inform  the 
civilian  population  of  towns  and  villages  to  clear 
out  as  quickly  as  possible,  and  to  publish  notices  of 
the  enemy's  advance. 

The  hardest  time  of  all  was  when  one's  particular 


THE   RETIREMENT  25 

regiment  found  rearguard  :  then  we  often  had  to 
march  back  for  a  few  miles  along  the  wray  we  had 
come,  dig  trenches,  hold  the  enemy  the  whole  of 
the  day,  and  then  at  night  continue  the  march  until 
we  picked  up  the  main  body  again.  Oftentimes  on 
reaching  the  main  body  it  was  found  that  they  were 
just  ready  to  start  again,  so  the  rearguard  would 
be  obliged  to  continue  their  march  without  in- 
termission. 

It  was  a  couple  of  days  out  of  Mons  and  during  a 
rearguard  action  that  the  Munster  Fusiliers  re- 
ceived a  good  drubbing,  but  not  until  after  they  had 
held  the  enemy  at  bay  for  several  hours.  My  regi- 
ment was  that  evening  doing  rearguard  to  our  own 
Brigade  when  some  of  the  Munsters  retired  through 
us.  One  poor  fellow  going  through  told  us  how  his 
chum  had  had  his  jaw  blown  away  by  a  piece  of 
shell,  and  the  Germans  on  reaching  the  Munsters' 
trenches  had  killed  all  the  wounded  with  the  very 
entrenching  tools  they  had  been  using.  We  ex- 
pected to  see  them  coming  in  force  that  night,  but 
after  waiting  until  dusk,  we  retired  on  the  main 
body.  Unfortunately  we  did  not  get  clear  away 
without  casualties.  An  unlucky  affair  occurred  in 
this  way  :  we  had,  the  day  before,  passed  through 
Soissons,  and  I  remember  it  was  at  this  village  that 


26  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

we  caught  up  with  the  main  body.  On  entering 
the  village  we  had  to  cross  a  bridge  with  a  river  be- 
neath, and  the  Northampton  Regiment  was  guard- 
ing it  while  the  Engineers  stood  by  ready  to  blow  it 
up  when  we  were  all  over.  My  regiment  was  the 
last  to  cross,  and  we  had  already  done  so  with  the 
exception  of  one  platoon,  and  were  told  to  stand  in 
the  centre  of  the  village,  when  some  one  gave  the 
word  that  we  were  all  over ;  and  accordingly  the 
Engineers  blew  up  the  bridge.  No  sooner  had  that 
happened  than  this  platoon  came  marching  down 
the  road.  Of  course  the  Northamptons  mistook 
them  in  the  dark  for  the  Germans,  and  opened  rapid 
fire  upon  them.  I  was  afterwards  told  by  a  chum 
who  was  in  that  platoon  that  a  body  of  Uhlans 
came  galloping  down  the  road  not  five  minutes 
afterwards  ;  and  he,  with  one  or  two  others  who 
had  survived  the  Northamptons'  fire,  were  taken 
prisoners.  (This  particular  man  fell  ill,  so  they  put 
him  into  hospital,  and  when  we  fought  the  Battle 
of  the  Marne  we  retook  him ;  he  was  sent  home, 
and  after  a  month  or  two  convalescent  leave  he 
rejoined  us.)  Naturally  the  Officer  in  charge  of  the 
Uhlans  was  very  wild  when  he  found  the  bridge  had 
been  blown  up,  as  it  was  eight  miles  to  the  next 
crossing. 


THE  RETIREMENT  27 

Most  of  our  men  had  thrown  away  all  their 
heavy  kit,  such  as  top-coats,  etc.,  and  the  Germans 
of  course  made  good  use  of  them,  some  of  them 
putting  the  clothes  on. 

At  one  place  at  which  wre  were  billeted  five  of 
these  Germans  stopped  in  the  house  next  to  a  barn 
where  a  platoon  of  the  Connaughts1  were.  Just 
before  daybreak  these  Germans  gave  the  alarm, 
and,  as  the  Connaughts  rushed  out  of  their  billets 
to  the  alarm  post,  the  enemy  were  awaiting  them 
with  machine  guns.  This  I  got  from  a  man  who  on 
the  following  night  laid  himself  down  to  sleep  on 
the  pavement  where  I  was  doing  sentry-go.  Poor 
fellow,  he  had  on  no  hat  or  jacket,  neither  had  he 
any  rifle  or  equipment.  He  had  been  following  us 
all  day,  and  had  had  nothing  to  eat.  So  I  took  him 
into  the  room  of  the  house  which  we  were  then 
using  as  a  Guard  Room,  and  the  N.C.O.  in  charge 
took  him  before  an  Officer.  His  story  was  proved 
to  be  correct,  so  he  was  allowed  to  stay  with  the 
Company  for  the  night ;  but  what  became  of  him 
after  I  know  not. 

Next  morning  my  regiment  was  finding  rear- 
guard, so  wre  marched  through  the  town  to  an  old 
disused  mill.  Going  through  that,  and  crossing  a 

1  The  88th  Connaughts  got  badly  cut  up  on  the  Retirement. 


28  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

field,  we  came  to  a  swiftly  running  stream,  which 
we  waded  across  through  water  up  to  our  armpits. 
On  the  other  side  we  had  a  very  steep  bank  to 
climb,  and  up  which  we  had  to  drive  two  pack 
animals.  One  of  these,  after  climbing  up  a  part  of 
the  way,  fell  down  and  simply  rolled  over  and  over 
till  he  reached  the  bottom.  We  had  to  shoot  the 
wretched  animal,  owing  to  a  damaged  fetlock.  On 
gaining  the  summit,  we  set  off  in  skirmishing  order 
over  a  mile  of  open  country,  going  through  wheat- 
fields,  trampling  the  ripe  wrheat  underfoot  as  we 
went,  until  we  struck  a  main  road  which  ran 
parallel  with  the  one  we  had  travelled  the  day 
before.  Just  off  this  we  dug  the  usual  one-man 
trench,  and  remained  there  all  day  long.  The  only 
sight  we  had  of  the  enemy  was  a  patrol  of  cavalry 
too  far  off  to  be  within  range. 

Towards  four  in  the  afternoon  we  commenced 
again  to  retire,  and  had  no  sooner  reached  the 
next  village  before  the  enemy  began  to  shell  us. 
Again  we  were  lucky  in  getting  off  with  no  damage 
and  no  casualty.  All  this  was  all  very  well,  but  it 
did  not  suit  the  men.  This  running  away  from  the 
enemy  could  not  be  stood  at  any  price,  and  the 
constant  cry  was  :  "  Why  don't  we  stand  and 
fight  them  ?  What  are  we  afraid  of  ?  If  you 


THE   RETIREMENT  29 

bring  us  here  to  fight,  let's  fight — otherwise  put  us 
all  on  a  boat  and  dump  us  down  in  England." 

On  several  occasions  we  passed  food-supplies  left 
on  the  roadside — left  for  the  Germans  :  whole 
cheeses,  tins  of  mustard,  one  of  which  I  carried 
for  four  days,  but,  on  getting  nothing  to  eat  with  it, 
I  threw  it  away. 

We  would  arrive  outside  a  village,  allotted  for 
billets,  perhaps  about  7.30  p.m.,  and,  after  having 
marched  the  whole  of  the  day,  we  were  not  allowed 
to  enter  the  village  until  eleven  or  twelve  o'clock  at 
night  to  make  ourselves  comfy.  The  reason,  I  be- 
lieve, was  that  it  might  be  shelled  by  the  enemy. 
No  one  was  allowed  to  touch  a  thing — not  even  fruit 
— or  he  would  be  punished  for  looting  ;  yet  we 
knew  very  wrell  that,  perhaps  on  the  morrow,  the 
Germans  would  secure  it  all. 

Various  bulletins  were  issued  during  that  Retire- 
ment, I  suppose  to  cheer  up  the  troops.  One  I 
remember  contained  the  report  of  a  German  who 
had  been  taken  prisoner,  and  who  had  upon  him  a 
diary,  which — according  to  the  bulletin — declared 
that  the  German  Army  was  starving.  Another,  a 
very  strong  rumour,  went  the  rounds,  to  the  effect 
that  we  were  doing  a  strategical  retirement  for  the 
purpose  of  drawing  the  main  body  of  the  German 


30  A  RESERVIST  IN   FRANCE 

Army  into  France,  whilst  the  Russians  came  in  on 
the  East.  Two  days  after  that,  a  report  was  out 
that  the  Russians  were  marching  on  Berlin,  and 
were  within  a  few  days'  march  of  the  capital  itself. 
Imagine  our  feelings,  our  delight.  Remember, 
we  were  absolutely  cut  off  from  all  outside  news. 
What  were  we  to  think  ?  Most  of  us  expected 
that  the  war  would  be  over  in  a  very  short 
time. 

After  the  first  five  days,  we  were  given  a  day's 
halt.  The  whole  of  the  day  before  we  had  been 
marching  until  three  in  the  morning,  and  were  told 
on  this  day's  rest  that  we  had  done  so  well,  out- 
pacing the  enemy  and  outwitting  them  so  success- 
fully, that  we  should  no  doubt  be  able  to  rest  for  the 
next  three  days.  On  that  day  they  paid  us  out, 
giving  each  man  five  francs,  which,  however,  were 
of  no  earthly  use  to  us,  as  we  were  all  brigaded  in  a 
large  field,  and  there  was  not  a  shop  for  miles.  Our 
three-days'  rest,  however,  did  not  materialize  :  we 
were  off  again  next  morning,  with  the  enemy  hot  on 
our  heels,  having  overtaken  us  by  motors.  So  we 
had  to  continue  our  weary  task  sooner  than  we  had 
anticipated. 

We  were  all  fairly  quiet  on  the  country  roads,  but 
as  soon  as  we  came  to  any  large  towns  or  villages 


THE  RETIREMENT  81 

we  would  always  knock  out  the  strains  of  Tip- 
perary."  Another  good  point  in  Tommy's  char- 
acter manifested  itself — no  matter  how  many  miles 
he  had  covered  during  the  day,  during  which  he 
would  be  grumbling  the  whole  of  the  time,  he  would, 
immediately  on  striking  camp,  walk  if  necessary  for 
miles  looking  for  a  hay  or  straw  stack  on  which  to 
find  something  soft  and  clean  to  lie  upon. 

One  turning  point  on  that  Retirement  was  a 
small  town,  by  name  Bernay,  I  believe,  in  the 
Champagne.  There  we  arrived  on  a  Saturday  at 
midday  ;  the  afternoon  was  spent  in  resting.  A 
few  days  before  we  had  struck  off  south  from 
Meaux,  and  we  heard  that  we  were  to  defend  Paris. 
During  the  afternoon  before  we  arrived  at  Bernay, 
we  had  passed  an  encampment  of  refugees  number- 
ing many  thousands,  and  just  outside  Bernay  were 
many  more.  I  was  on  outpost  duty  that  night ; 
and  a  suspicious  individual  came  up  to  me  whilst  I 
was  on  sentry.  I,  of  course,  inquired  his  business  ; 
but,  as  he  could  not  understand  my  language,  he 
took  no  notice.  As  I  could  not  leave  my  post,  I 
told  another  man  who  was  off  duty  at  the  time  to 
bring  him  in.  This  fellow  went  out  with  his  rifle, 
but,  although  he  was  one  of  the  fastest  runners  in 
my  regiment,  he  could  not  overtake  the  stranger, 


82  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

who  got  away.  He  may  have  been  only  a  refugee 
having  a  look  round,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  he  may 
have  been  a  spy. 

That  day  we  finished  our  retirement  from  Mons  : 
it  was  the  sixth  of  September,  1914. 


THE  ADVANCE 

THE  following  morning  we  left  Bernay  behind, 
and,  going  out  the  opposite  side  of  the  town  from 
which  we  had  entered,  we  marched  two  miles  along 
the  road  until  we  came  to  a  hill  on  the  left  of  the 
road  about  five  hundred  yards  off.  There  we 
advanced  to  the  cover  of  the  hill  and  were  ordered 
to  lie  down.  We  were  then  informed  that  a  four- 
days'  battle  was  expected,  and  that  a  force  of 
40,000  Germans  was  on  our  front.  Nothing,  how- 
ever, came  of  it  that  day ;  so  we  advanced  a  few 
more  miles,  and  took  rest  in  a  field  for  an  hour. 
There  we  were  told  that  all  men  who  wished  to  do 
so  could  grow  a  beard.  From  there  we  marched  on 
to  billets  in  a  village. 

The  next  morning  we  were  away  early,  and  during 
that  day  we  passed  through  a  village  from  which 
the  Germans  had  obviously  made  a  hurried  exit, 
for  we  found  that  many  things  had  been  left  be- 
hind. We  were  the  ones  that  were  doing  the  chas- 
ing now,  and  a  nice  change  it  was  to  us  !  Of 

88  D 


34  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

course,  we  could  not  go  very  fast,  not  as  fast  as  we 
had  been  made  to  go  when  retiring  ;  and  we  were 
allowed  to  march  in  greater  comfort.  During  the 
Retirement  the  infantry  had  had  to  put  up  with 
many  trials — for  instance  :  we  took  the  right  of  the 
road  and  on  the  left  we  sometimes  had  Cavalry, 
Artillery,  and  Transport,  which  made  marching 
most  uncomfortable,  whereas  during  the  Advance 
we  had  the  road  to  ourselves. 

On  the  third  day  out  we  came  across  several  dead 
horses  and  dead  troopers,  where  our  advance  party 
had  come  into  contact  with  the  enemy's  rearguard. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    BATTLE    OF    THE    MARNE 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   BATTLE   OF   THE   MARNE 

I  WILL  make  a  humble  attempt  to  relate  the  Battle 
of  the  Marne  as  it  was  fought  by  the  1st  Division. 
Our  worst  day — the  one  on  which  we  did  the  most 
fighting — was  the  tenth  of  September.  On  the 
morning  of  that  day  we  marched  off  particularly 
early,  and  we  must  have  done  close  on  ten  miles,  as 
we  were  halted  for  rest  on  two  occasions.  On 
breasting  a  hill  about  two  miles  from  the  last  halt, 
we  were  again  called  to  the  halt,  and  the  Artillery, 
brought  up  from  behind,  opened  out  on  each  side  of 
the  road  and  the  crest  of  the  hill.  The  word  was 
then  passed  down  the  ranks  that  a  large  German 
convoy  was  expected  to  leave  this  village,  and  that 
we  were  to  capture  it.  Every  one  was  in  high 
spirits,  as  food  had  been  none  too  plentiful,  and  we 
were  all  looking  forward  to  the  capture  of  this  con- 
voy in  the  hopes  of  recompense. 

The  North  Lancashires  were  the  second  regiment, 
with  the  2nd  Royal  Sussex  leading,  they  and  the 

37 


38  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

King's  Royal  Rifles  taking  the  left  of  the  road,  and 
the  North  Lancashires  and  Northamptons  taking 
the  right.  We  then  commenced  to  advance  in 
Artillery  formation,  three  hundred  paces  distant 
and  fifty  paces  interval :  this  we  did  until  reaching 
the  bottom  of  the  hill  and  to  the  right  of  the  village 
half  a  mile  away.  In  this  village,  by  name 
Preiz,  were  the  Germans,  and  running  out  the  other 
side,  but  up  the  hill,  was  the  German  convoy 
retiring,  the  village  itself  being  in  a  basin.  On 
reaching  the  bottom  of  the  hill,  we  had  to  cross  a 
stream :  once  on  the  other  side  we  opened  out  in 
extended  order,  our  idea  being  to  skirt  the  village 
and  come  up  with  the  Germans  going  over  the  other 
crest.  Unfortunately  it  was  a  wet  morning,  and 
the  men  had  taken  the  advantage  of  putting  their 
oil-sheets  round  their  shoulders  to  keep  them  dry, 
the  oil -sheets  when  wet  being  of  a  similar  colour  to 
the  German  uniform.  In  the  distance  our  gunners 
bombarded  us,  mistaking  us  for  the  retiring 
enemy  ;  and  we  had  no  sooner  come  into  view  of  our 
gunners  than  they  let  go.  However,  we  plodded 
on,  going  up  in  short  rushes  by  platoons.  We  had 
with  us  at  the  time  a  new  man  who  had  volunteered 
for  the  front  at  the  outbreak  of  war,  offering  to 
enlist  provided  the  authorities  despatched  him 


'""""'"* 

' 


MAP   1. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARNE   41 

straight  out.  This  they  had  done,  sending  him  to 
the  particular  platoon  to  which  I  belonged.  To 
our  sorrow,  he  happened  to  be  the  end  man,  and 
should  have  given  the  word  when  the  other  platoon 
had  halted  and  got  down,  to  enable  us  to  advance. 
That  first  platoon,  having  got  down,  opened  fire, 
and  instead  of  our  advancing  under  cover  of  that 
fire,  that  man  failed  to  give  the  word.  I  was 
second  man,  and,  after  lying  still  with  our  heads 
stuck  into  the  ground  for  ten  minutes,  I  asked  him 
if  the  other  platoon  had  stopped — to  which  he 
replied  :  "  I  do  not  know,  as  I  cannot  see  them." 
So  I  gave  the  order  to  advance.  Consequently  as 
soon  as  we  got  up  we  were  met  with  a  heavy  fire 
from  the  enemy,  losing  at  once  one  or  two  men.  On 
crossing  a  narrow  track  of  road  near  the  crest  of  the 
hill  we  were  joined  by  the  C.O.,  who  had  come  up 
there  by  the  road  to  give  us  final  instructions.  He 
got  hit  by  a  piece  of  shell,  which  passed  through  his 
horse's  neck  and  entered  his  stomach  :  he  died  a 
few  minutes  afterwards. 

We  were  now  getting  quite  close  to  the  enemy 
and  bearing  round  on  to  the  main  road  ;  but,  as  the 
fire  became  too  hot  for  us  and  as  we  had  no 
reinforcements,  we  had  to  fall  back  as  far  as  the 
stream.  A  quarter  of  an  hour  after  that  the 


42  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

Guards  1st  Brigade  came  up  on  our  right,  and  the 
Major  who  was  then  in  charge  of  us  said  he  was  very 
sorry  that  we  had  not  taken  the  position,  but  that 
we  would  try  again  :  this  time  it  would  be  an 
easier  task,  as  we  had  the  Guards  on  our  right  to 
help  us. 

Once  more  we  opened  out  into  skirmishing  order 
and  recommenced  our  task  ;  meanwhile  on  the 
right  the  Sussex  were  doing  well,  and  the  King's 
Royal  Rifles  and  Northamptons  had  succeeded  in 
driving  the  enemy  from  the  village.  So  by  the 
time  we  had  reached  the  crest  again,  the  enemy  had 
flown  and  the  Guards  were  not  required.  Coming 
back  into  the  village,  we  found  the  Artillery  had 
advanced  through  the  village  and  from  the  top  of 
the  crest  were  shelling  the  departing  Germans  on 
the  other  side  of  the  hill. 

We  reorganized  in  the  village,  and  when  the  roll 
was  called  we  found  we  were  about  fifty  men  short 
of  the  number  we  attacked  with.  Needless  to  say, 
we  did  not  capture  the  convoy,  neither  were  our 
rations  increased,  but  we  had  the  satisfaction  of 
knowing  that  we  had,  at  any  rate,  taken  the  village 
and  driven  the  Germans  off  one  section  of  the 
Marne.  Our  greatest  loss  was  our  C.O.  ;  but  we 
also  lost  the  Captain  of  B  Company,  who  was 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARXE    43 

reported  missing  and  has  never  been  heard  of 
since. 

In  that  battle  my  section  was  particularly  for- 
tunate, losing  only  one  man.  and  he  the  Sergeant 
in  charge,  who  had  been  hit  in  the  knee  by  a  bullet, 
but  it  was  only  a  slight  wound.  Moreover,  on  our 
second  advance  over  the  rise  we  did  not  get  the 
shelling  of  our  own  gunners,  as  word  had  been  sent 
back  to  them  informing  them  of  their  mistake. 

During  the  next  three  days  we  had  only  running 
encounters  with  the  enemv. 

V 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  thirteenth  of  September — 
a  Sunday  afternoon — we  took  up  position  on  the 
top  of  a  large  hill  facing  the  valley  of  the  Aisne. 
Whilst  there,  one  or  two  shells  came  over  and  we 
had  a  few  casualties,  but  the  words  of  our  Brigadier 
were  :  '"  They  will  not  give  battle  here,  but  over 
there,"  pointing  to  some  big  hills  about  four  miles 
away,  behind  which  lay  the  town  of  Laon.  On 
that  morning  we  had  anticipated  some  street 
fighting  at  a  place  we  had  come  through  called 
Bourge.  yet,  although  they  had  had  the  street^  well 
barricaded,  they  did  not  show  fight,  but  elected  to 
fall  back.  That  night  we  were  taken  from  our 
position  on  top  of  the  hill  nearer  the  enemy  to  a 
village  and  there  put  into  billet^.  At  eight  o'clock 


44  A  RESERVIST   IN  FRANCE 

every  one  was  fairly  comfortable,  and  we  were 
settled  in  farm-buildings  with  plenty  of  good 
straw ;  but  how  we  managed  to  sleep  so  comfort- 
ably— with  the  Germans  only  three  miles  off — I 
cannot  say.  Why  they  never  blew  us  off  the  face 
of  the  earth  with  the  big  guns  they  possessed  we 
often  wondered — anyhow  they  didn't !  and  we  got 
down,  to  dream  of  home,  huddled  into  each  other 
the  best  way  we  could  to  keep  warm. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   BATTLE   OF  THE  AISNE 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   BATTLE   OF   THE   AISNE 

WE  were  roused  next  morning  with  kicks  from  the 
platoon  commanders,  and,  after  much  struggling 
and  putting  on  of  wrong  equipments,  we  marched 
out,  but  not  before  each  man  had  received  two 
ounces  of  Gold  Flake  tobacco,  the  first  English 
tobacco  we  had  seen  since  leaving  home. 

It  was  the  fourteenth  day  of  September,  and 
raining.  Leaving  the  village,  we  marched  down  a 
road  for  about  five  hundred  yards,  bordered  on 
each  side  by  high  banks.  There  a  halt  was  called. 
On  our  right  we  could  hear  the  sound  of  shots,  and 
the  Corporal  in  charge  of  the  range-finder  was  sent 
to  the  top  of  the  bank  to  take  the  range.  He  could 
not  see  very  far,  on  account  of  a  heavy  mist,  but 
reported  the  King's  Royal  Rifles  advancing.  We 
then  doubled  by  platoons  through  an  avenue  of 
trees  exposed  to  the  enemy's  fire,  and  gained  some 
fields  on  the  further  side  of  the  road,  lining  the 
hedges.  From  there  into  the  valley  led  one  road 

47 


48  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

which  was  little  more  than  a  narrow  defile  ;  then 
it  wound  away  to  the  right  front  over  the  crest 
which  the  Germans  held.  Halfway  up  this  road 
was  a  small  village  called  Tryon.  At  the  rear  and 
facing  the  crest  held  by  the  enemy  was  another  and 
smaller  hill  thickly  wooded.  Before  taking  us 
through  the  defile  and  into  the  valley,  the  words  of 
the  Brigadier  were  :  "  That  ridge  has  to  be  taken 
by  nightfall — otherwise  we  shall  be  annihilated." 

That  day  witnessed  one  of  the  worst  battles  I 
have  ever  experienced,  as  we  were  badly  equipped 
with  guns,  having  mostly  only  eighteen-pounders — 
"  pop-guns,"  as  the  boys  called  them — whilst  it 
was  the  first  day  on  which  we  met  the  really  big 
guns  of  the  Germans — those  promptly  dubbed 
"  Jack  Johnsons." 

Our  particular  front  was  facing  a  beet-sugar 
factory  just  off  the  main  road,  and  there  the 
fighting  was  very  furious.  By  midday  we  had 
taken  several  of  the  Prussian  Guard  and  of  the 
Death's  Head  Own  Hussars  prisoners  ;  also  report 
went  round  that  we  had  captured  twelve  guns, 
which  news  cheered  us  greatly.  One  prisoner,  a 
Prussian  Guardsman,  remarked  on  the  way  back : 
"  Never  mind,  boys  ;  we  shall  soon  be  back  in  dear 
old  London  again  ! ' 


MAP  2. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  AISNE         51 

On  one  occasion  early  in  the  day,  having  to  retire 
from  the  top  of  the  crest  down  into  the  valley,  our 
Company- Sergeant -Major  took  us  via  the  other  hill 
through  the  wood  to  the  position  at  the  summit  of 
the  hill  which  the  Germans  held.  It  was  a  splendid 
move,  well  carried  out,  and  without  the  loss  of  a 
single  man. 

On  gaining  the  summit  on  the  first  occasion  one 
team  of  our  machine-gunners  took  up  position  and 
held  it  the  whole  of  the  day,  helping  us  greatly  to 
secure  the  position  against  all  enemy  assaults.  The 
men  stood  their  ground  splendidly,  three  of  them 
being  recommended  for  the  Distinguished  Conduct 
Medal.  On  our  right  was  the  1st  Brigade,  and 
connected  up  with  us  was  the  Black  Watch.  One 
large  shell  of  the  Germans  which  pitched  amongst 
a  platoon  of  theirs  standing  between  two  haystacks 
completely  wiped  them  out  with  the  exception  of 
two  men. 

We  continued  to  advance  and  retire  the  whole 
day  through.  First  we  gained  ground  and  the 
Germans  drove  us  off  again  ;  then  we  came  back 
with  redoubled  energy,  until  towards  evening  we 
began  to  hold  on  and  the  Germans  to  retire.  On 
the  right  of  the  road  was  a  haystack  on  fire,  and  we 
were  in  a  small  trench  just  thrown  up  behind  it. 

£2 


52  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

The  bullets  were  flying  from  that  rick  as  if  a  maga- 
zine was  on  fire  and  it  was  very  unhealthy.  At  one 
time  we  were  in  a  swede  field,  and  a  large  shell  burst 
in  front  of  us,  covering  us  with  dirt.  A  chum  of 
mine,  being  hit  very  forcibly  with  a  flying  swede, 
up  he  jumped,  shouting  :  "  I'm  hit,  I'm  hit ! ' 
but  came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  wasn't  as  bad 
as  he  had  thought. 

As  darkness  came  on  we  all  formed  up  in  line,  and 
the  Brigadier,  coming  to  the  crest,  remarked : 
"  The  Brigade  will  bivouac  on  the  ground  they 
now  hold.  Dig  in."  There  and  then  we  com- 
menced a  line  of  trenches,  which  are  there  to  this 
day. 

It  had  been  a  most  awful  and  bloodthirsty  day, 
with  two  of  the  finest  bodies  of  men  that  ever  faced 
each  other  opposed  to  one  another.  There  was 
bound  to  be  a  good  fight,  and  it  was  the  cleanest 
and  most  sporting  day's  battle  I  have  ever  fought. 
Of  course  there  was  no  time  for  food,  and  we  got 
none  that  day ;  but  we  had  the  satisfaction  of 
knowing  that  we  had  accomplished  what  we  set  out 
to  do.  We  naturally  had  very  heavy  losses, 
including  our  second  C.O.,  several  other  Officers 
and  a  large  number  of  N.C.O.'s  and  men — in  all 
nearly  four  hundred.  The  rations  came  up 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  AISNE         53 

that  night  while  we  were  digging  our  trenches  ; 
they  were  brought  up  under  cover  of  the 
darkness  right  to  the  front  line  and  there  dumped. 
Those  who  were  near  when  they  arrived  were  for- 
tunate, as  they  got  their  shares  ;  others  who  were 
further  away  got  none.  I  was  one  of  the  fortunate 
ones,  and  filled  my  pockets  with  small  biscuits  and 
a  lump  of  cheese,  on  which  I  kept  two  chums  all 
next  day. 

During  the  night  we  dug  our  one-man  trenches 
six-foot  long  and  as  deep  as  we  could  make  them  ;  it 
was  hard  work  at  times,  the  soil  being  very  rocky. 
I  got  fairly  well  down  nearly  four  feet  by  day- 
break, when  my  Platoon  Sergeant  came  along  and 
ordered  me  to  join  my  section  further  along  the 
line,  another  man  whose  section  was  near  me 
taking  over  my  trench.  It  couldn't  be  helped,  as 
we  had  all  got  mixed  up  in  the  day  action  the  day 
before.  When  I  joined  my  section  I  found  the 
trench  I  had  to  take  over  only  about  a  foot  deep 
and  the  whole  week  following,  although  I  was 
digging  on  every  possible  occasion,  I  could  not  get 
down  more  than  six  inches,  as  I  had  to  go  through 
sheer  rock. 

Soon  after  daybreak  the  Germans  were  off  again, 
shelling  our  trenches  with  shells  of  every  calibre. 


54  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

This  continued  for  an  hour,  but  did  very  little 
damage.  After  that  they  continued  to  shell  our 
gun  positions  in  the  rear,  our  guns  keeping  up  a 
steady  reply.  One  Howitzer  battery  of  ours  was  in 
a  cave,  running  out  by  means  of  rails,  situated  in 
the  wooded  hill  behind  our  lines.  The  enemy  con- 
tinued to  shell  with  every  kind  of  gun  the  whole 
time  I  was  on  the  Aisne — that  is,  over  a  month — 
and  the  only  casualty  that  battery  had  was  one  man 
wounded.  The  German  shells  would  burst  round 
it  with  a  huge  roar  and  a  noise  very  much  like 
"  Krupp,"  and  this  small  gun  would  answer  with  a 
short  sharp  bang,  for  all  the  world  as  if  a  little  boy 
had  put  his  fingers  to  his  nose  at  a  policeman. 

Just  behind  the  line  and  halfway  down  the  slope 
of  the  hill  was  the  small  village  of  Tryon,  where 
there  was  a  public  wash-house.  A  large  shell  had 
pitched  there,  but  never  exploded  ;  its  weight  was 
not  less  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds. 
There  was  another  on  the  roadway,  and  two  or  three 
of  them  in  the  valley  :  one  stood  up  on  its  base. 
We  were  down  there  one  day  getting  wood,  and  a 
chum  of  mine  put  his  foot  on  it,  knocking  it  over. 
An  Officer  passing  at  the  time  remarked :  "  You 
would  have  looked  well  if  that  thing  had  gone  off !  ' 
My  chum  did  not  wait  to  hear  any  more — he  was  off. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  AISNE         55 

That  valley,  when  we  left  it,  was  like  a  pepper- 
box top — simply  perforated  every  few  yards.  How 
we  managed  to  remain  alive  on  the  Aisne  the  first 
week  was  simply  a  mystery.  Food  was  scarce  ; 
and  once  we  had  a  single  loaf  issued  out  between 
a  hundred  men.  We  tossed  for  it,  the  winner  to 
receive  the  lot,  the  others  going  without.  After 
the  first  week  we  were  much  better  supplied,  having 
bread  or  biscuits,  with  a  ration  of  cheese  or  bacon, 
but  precious  little  of  that ;  and  oftentimes  I  tossed 
for  the  lot  and  lost  all !  Fortunately  there  were 
plenty  of  potatoes  and  carrots  in  the  ground — these 
we  dug  up,  boiling  them,  and,  after  straining  the 
water  off,  partook  of  them  with  a  slice  of  cold 
corned  beef.  Some  would  boil  the  beef  with  the 
potatoes,  thereby  getting  the  salt  from  the  beef 
into  the  potatoes  :  this  we  called  "  bully  stews." 

Our  Division,  I  believe,  took  the  extreme  right 
of  the  British  line  on  the  Aisne  ;  anyway,  the 
French  were  joining  us.  They  were  very  quiet  by 
day,  but  as  soon  as  darkness  set  in  they  would  start 
a  rapid  fire  all  along  their  line,  our  boys  remarking  : 
"  The  French  have  got  the  wind  up."  Our  orders 
were  not  to  fire  on  any  account,  but  to  use  the 
bayonet.  At  night  every  other  man  in  the  front 
line  was  posted  as  sentry,  doing  one  hour,  after 


56  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

which  the  alternate  men  would  do  an  hour.  This 
continued  until  daybreak,  when  sentries  were 
lowered  to  one  in  three. 

The  third  night  after  taking  the  Aisne  we  ex- 
pected an  attack  from  the  enemy,  and  the  whole 
Regiment  stood  to  till  morning.  It  was  truly 
beautiful — it  rained  incessantly,  and  one  could  not 
see  more  than  a  yard  in  front  of  one's  nose  !  That 
night  a  man  of  the  Black  Watch  came  in  having 
been  left  out  since  Monday's  battle  :  he  had  nearly 
every  toe  shot  off  and  was  almost  blind.  He  had — 
so  he  told  us — been  in  one  of  the  boilers  of  the  beet- 
sugar  factory,  and  a  German  had  fired  several  shots 
into  the  boiler,  killing  some  more  men  who  were  in 
there  with  him.  A  Guardsman  also  came  in,  shot 
all  over. 

On  the  fourth  night  I  was  allotted  a  nice  job. 
My  Section  Sergeant,  coming  to  me  just  after  dark, 
said  :  "  I've  a  nice  little  job  for  you." 

"  Oh  yes,"  says  I — thinking  it  was  a  nice  little 
berth  behind  with  the  transport — "  what  is  it  ?  ' 

"  Do  you  know  anything  about  barbed  wire  ?  ' 
says  he  ;    "  just  twisting  it  around  stakes  ?  ' 

"  I  don't  know,"  says  I :  "  I  may  be  able  to  do 
it ;  anyhow  I  could  have  a  try." 

"  Well,  out  in  front  about  forty  yards,"  says  this 


THE   BATTLE   OF  THE   AISNE          57 

Sergeant,  "  you  will  find  a  lot  of  stakes  and  two 
reels  of  barbed  wire.  Now  you  go  out  and  I'll  send 
another  fellow  to  knock  in  the  stakes  while  you  can 
twist  the  wire  round  them  and  make  some  en- 
tanglements." 

I  can't  say  I  liked  the  job,  because  I  didn't  ! 
The  enemy  lay  only  a  few  hundred  yards  away,  and 
I  had  to  go  out  there  attracting  attention  by 
knocking  in  stakes  and  twisting  barbed  wire 
around  them,  a  thing  the  enemy  would  be  sure  to 
try  their  best  to  prevent.  But  it  had  to  be  done,  so 
off  we  started,  creeping  over  the  top.  We  were 
looking  for  nearly  an  hour  for  this  wire  and,  after 
twice  nearly  walking  into  the  enemy's  lines,  we  at 
length  found  it,  and  managed,  after  several  volleys 
from  the  enemy,  to  accomplish  our  task,  and  rig  up 
some  sort  of  defence.  Every  night  after  that, 
whenever  we  occupied  the  front  line,  I  was  one  of 
the  men  erecting  the  barbed  wire  entanglements, 
and  many  were  the  narrow  squeaks  I  had  at  the 
hands  of  the  Germans. 

At  the  end  of  the  first  week  we  were  relieved  by 
the  21st  Brigade,  containing  the  Sherwood  Fores- 
ters and  West  Yorkshires.  They  were  a  new  im- 
portation from  England,  My  word  !  didn't  they 
look  smart,  while  we  who  had  gone  through  so 


58  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

much  looked  worse  than  tramps,  absolutely  reeking 
of  mud.  We  were  taken  back  to  a  village  about  five 
miles  in  the  rear,  and  on  the  way  back  we  had  again 
to  go  through  the  defile  by  which  we  entered.  Our 
batteries  were  still  there,  but  the  stench  from  dead 
horses  was  awful.  This  village  was  at  the  back  of 
the  wooded  hill  aforementioned,  and  there  were 
several  caves  there,  perfectly  safe  from  the  shells  of 
the  biggest  guns  yet  made.  In  these  caves  we 
were  lodged,  and  we  had  a  chance  of  a  rest — the 
first  real  rest  we  had  since  commencing  the  Retire- 
ment. At  the  bottom  of  the  hill  was  also  a  river, 
where  every  one  indulged  in  a  bathe. 

We  were  in  those  caves  for  two  days;  on  the 
third  day  we  were  called  out  at  4  a.m.,  and  we 
proceeded  to  a  village  on  our  right  previously 
occupied  by  the  French.  To  get  there  we  had  to 
cross  a  sky-line,  fully  in  view  of  the  German  ob- 
servers. We  men  knew  that  sky-line,  for  while  we 
lay  in  our  trenches  the  whole  of  the  previous  week 
we  had  watched  the  Germans  shell  it  when  the 
French  troops  marched  over  it.  Unluckily  for  me, 
my  Regiment  was  the  last  regiment  of  the  Brigade 
to  go  over.  The  other  three  got  through  safely  ; 
but,  as  the  road  was  thick  with  mud,  we  had  taken 
to  the  field,  and  thus  gave  the  Germans  an  even 


THE   BATTLE   OF  THE  AISNE         59 

better  view  of  us.  Two  companies  were  nearly 
over  before  we  had  it :  we  were  the  last  two,  when 
over  they  came  in  batteries,  five  shells  at  a  time. 
We  were  of  course  forced  to  fall  back  over  the 
crest,  but  not  before  we  had  had  twenty-five 
casualties,  though  we  eventually  reached  our 
objective  without  any  further  losses. 

That  village  was  one  of  the  very  worst  I  had  come 
across — dead  horses  and  dead  men  everywhere.  It 
was  full  of  caves,  in  which  we  were  kept ;  but  we 
stayed  there  only  one  day,  during  which  an  enemy 
aeroplane  passed  over,  and  on  seeing  us  dropped  a 
silver  ball  which  slowly  floated  down  to  where  we 
were,  thereby  giving  the  range  to  the  German 
batteries.  But  they  could  not  hurt  us  on  account 
of  the  good  cover  afforded  by  the  caves.  It  was 
the  first  silver  ball  we  had  seen,  and  at  first  we  took 
it  for  a  bomb. 

That  night  we  returned  to  our  old  caves  once 
more.  I  afterwards  heard  that  the  reason  of  our 
being  called  out  was  that  the  21st  Brigade,  which 
had  relieved  us,  had  lost  the  trenches  through  a 
great  enemy  attack,  but  had  regained  them  by 
nightfall.  Whether  that  was  the  true  reason  or 
not  I  was  never  really  able  to  learn,  but,  on  going 
back  to  those  trenches  at  the  end  of  the  week, 


60  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

which  we  did,  we  found  a  large  grave,  with  a 
heading  which  read  :  "  Thirty-seven  Officers  and 
Men  of  the  Sherwood  Foresters  lie  here."  It  was 
a  Thursday  night  on  which  we  went  back  to  our  old 
billets  in  the  caves,  and  on  the  following  Saturday 
we  once  more  returned  to  our  old  positions,  only  a 
little  further  to  the  right,  the  1st  Brigade  taking 
over  those  we  had  dug  in  the  first  place.  There  we 
spent  another  three  weeks,  two  regiments  taking 
the  front  line  and  two  in  trenches  in  support  a  little 
lower  down  the  hill.  First  of  all  we  worked  this 
arrangement  alternately  four  days  in  the  front  line 
and  then  four  days  in  reserve,  but  this  was  soon 
altered  to  forty-eight  hours. 

It  was  a  fine  sight  when  we  were  in  the  trenches 
in  front  to  see  the  relieving  battalions  coming  up  to 
relieve  us  :  there  were  no  communication  trenches 
then,  and  they  had  to  advance  in  extended  order— 
lines  and  lines  of  them  ;  and  when  the  enemy 
opened  fire,  as  indeed  they  did  occasionally,  they 
all  dropped  down  as  one  man.  As  soon  as  the  firing 
ceased  they  were  off  again,  and  so  on  until  they 
reached  the  trenches,  when  they  would  fall  down 
just  in  rear,  and  on  the  word  of  an  Officer  we  would 
get  out  and  they  would  get  in.  We  would  retire  in 
the  same  order  as  they  advanced. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  AISNE         61 

There  was  plenty  of  work  on  the  Aisne  during 
those  days,  the  men  in  the  front  line  connecting 
each  single  trench  up  with  another,  so  as  to  form 
one  long  continual  line  ;  also  the  making  of  bunny 
holes.  During  the  day  we  had  the  usual  order : 
one  man  in  three  on  sentry,  now  commonly  termed 
in  the  trenches  "  look-out  "  ;  and,  at  night,  every 
other  man — if  a  quiet  night,  one  would  be  on 
sentry,  one  resting,  and  one  taken  for  digging  a  com- 
munication trench,  each  man  taking  his  turn  an 
hour  about.  Those  in  the  reserve  lines  would  all 
turn  out  with  picks  and  shovels  the  whole  of  the 
night,  digging  one  main  communication  trench. 

One  Sunday  morning  we  came  in  for  a  bad  time. 
The  enemy  finding  our  reserve  trenches,  which  we 
then  occupied  with  the  2nd  Royal  Sussex,  with 
enfilading  shell-fire,  put  several  sixty-pounders 
amongst  us,  causing  a  lot  of  damage.  After  that 
occasion  those  trenches  were  never  occupied,  but 
we  made  up  straw  dummies  in  khaki,  and  set  them 
around  each  dug-out ;  and  we  used  to  get  great  fun 
from  watching  the  enemy  shelling  them,  our  boys 
remarking  :  "  That's  it,  Fritz  !  Go  ahead,  and 
let  them  have  it ! '  One  shell  went  right  through 
the  Officers'  mess-cart  while  the  Officers  were  at  tea, 
killing  two.  That  cart  had  a  history ;  how  we 


62  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

came  by  it  is  worth  relating.  During  the  Retire- 
ment we  were  ordered  to  give  in  our  great-coats, 
which  were  placed  on  the  baggage- waggons.  There 
was  also  on  one  of  these  waggons  my  Company's 
money  for  paying  out  the  men.  This  was  done 
early  one  morning,  and,  when  we  marched  off,  the 
Armourer  Sergeant  and  a  certain  number  of  men 
were  left  behind  in  charge,  to  follow  on  when 
everything  was  ready.  I  was  afterwards  told  by 
one  of  this  party  that  the  Regiment  had  not  got  very 
far  down  the  road  when  the  Germans  entered  the 
village.  One  of  our  men,  seeing  the  Germans 
coming  and  noticing  this  Cape  cart  with  horse 
attached  on  the  other  side  of  the  road,  made  a  dash 
for  it,  and  drove  hard  after  us.  He  succeeded  in 
getting  away  and  joining  the  Regiment,  but  the 
Germans  had  done  their  best  to  stop  him,  as  the 
cart  was  riddled  with  bullet -holes.  The  other  men 
rushed  out  the  other  side  of  the  village,  thereby 
being  cut  off ;  there  were  about  fifty  of  them  from 
various  Regiments,  and,  when  called  upon  to  sur- 
render, preferred  to  make  a  fight  of  it.  They  lost 
one  killed  and  two  wounded  ;  and  some  then  gave 
in  and  some  made  off.  One  man  who  joined  us 
again  told  me  they  used  the  open  country  by  night 
and  hid  by  day,  for  four  days.  They  went  about 


THE  BATTLE   OF  THE   AISNE         63 

like  that  in  khaki,  and  on  the  fifth  day  got  into 
a  house  and,  procuring  civilian  clothing,  made 
their  way  to  Dunkirk,  whence,  after  seeing  the 
British  Consul,  they  were  sent  to  England.  Of 
course,  as  there  was  no  line  established  like  that 
which  the  Germans  have  now  in  France,  it  was 
possible  to  do  so.  The  Armourer  Sergeant  was 
amongst  those  taken,  but  he  escaped  from  Germany 
later. 

We  were  much  better  off  now  than  at  any  time 
before  ;  supplies  came  up  more  regularly,  and  we 
also  had  an  issue  of  rum,  as  well  as  the  Paris  edition 
of  The  Daily  Mail  every  day.  We  learnt  whom  we 
were  up  against — the  great  Von  Kluck,  immediately 
dubbed  old  "  One  O' Clock,"  since  every  day  at  that 
time  they  used  to  bombard  us.  It  was  here  that 
we  first  heard  that  we  were  "  the  contemptible 
little  army."  Here  we  also  received  a  draft  of 
reinforcements  other  than  Regulars,  the  Special 
Reserve  joining  the  few  remaining  regulars. 

I  had  here  an  experience  of  being  a  sniper.  I  was 
on  sentry-go  in  the  front  line  one  morning  when  an 
N.C.O.  came  up  to  me  and  inquired  "  what  class 
shot '  I  was.  I  replied  "  first  class  " — which  I 
was.  "  All  right,"  he  said,  "  you're  the  man  we 
want.  Come  with  me  to  the  Captain."  After 


64  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

putting  another  man  on  sentry,  I  followed  him. 
He  stated  my  qualifications  to  the  Captain.  "  Just 
the  man  !  "  says  the  Captain  ;  "  the  reason  I  sent 
for  you  is  that  we  are  persistently  being  troubled 
by  a  sniper,  and  I  wish  you  to  crawl  out  in  front  and 
bag  him."  "  Very  good,  sir,"  said  I — no  good 
saying  anything  else  ;  so  I  asked  him  the  position 
he  thought  the  German  was  firing  from.  "  Half 
right,"  said  he  ;  "if  you  watch  closely  until  those 
leaves  blow  aside,  you  will  see  his  head  "  ;  which 
I  did  after  a  minute  or  so.  "I  want  you  to  get 
that  man,"  said  the  Captain.  Off  I  crept  over  the 
top  with  loaded  rifle,  and,  after  going  a  couple  of 
hundred  yards,  I  lay  down  and  waited,  rifle  ready 
cocked.  As  soon  as  the  leaves  moved  I  let  drive 
my  whole  magazine  at  him.  Then  I  waited  again. 
The  leaves  moved  once  more,  so  he  was  still  there. 
I  got  suspicious  and  crawled  nearer  ;  but  found  no 
enemy  sniper — nothing  but  a  post  stuck  in  the 
ground  !  No  more  sniping  for  me  ! 

Our  stay  on  the  Aisne  was  drawing  to  a  close, 
but  I  heard  afterwards  that  two  civilians — one  an 
old  man  and  the  other  a  girl — had  been  shot  as 
spies,  the  man  for  working  an  underground  tele- 
phone and  the  girl  for  sending  off  carrier-pigeons. 
These  people  had  lived  the  whole  time  along  with 


THE   BATTLE   OF  THE   AISNE         65 

other  civilians  in  the  little  village  behind  the  line  ; 
they  were  found  out  by  the  French  Division  who 
relieved  us.  Every  day,  as  regular  as  clockwork, 
the  enemy  had  shelled  us  for  an  hour  after  day- 
break, and  for  an  hour  at  midday,  and  again  another 
hour  at  dusk,  with  an  occasional  burst  during  the 
night.  Rifle -fire  was  always  plentiful  on  the  Aisne 
at  night  on  both  sides. 

We  left  the  Aisne  in  the  small  hours  of  the 
morning  of  the  sixteenth  of  October,  being  relieved 
by  a  French  Division,  after  we  had  been  in  the 
trenches  the  whole  of  the  time  since  the  battle  of 
the  fourteenth  of  September.  Whilst  the  French 
Division  was  coming  up  at  midnight  with  the 
utmost  quietness  and  on  a  pitch-black  night,  the 
enemy  poured  shrapnel  into  them,  causing  the  loss 
of  fifty-two  to  that  Division,  which  simply  went  to 
show  that  the  Germans  had  a  pretty  good  idea  of 
what  was  afloat. 

That  morning  we  marched  to  Braine,  and  there 
we  entrained  for  what  we  all  thought  was  going  to 
be  a  rest,  but  really  proved  to  be  a  harder  task  than 
anything  we  had  had  before. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   FIRST  BATTLE   OF   YPRES 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   FIRST   BATTLE    OF   YPRES 

FROM  the  Aisne  we  travelled  in  the  usual  fashion, 
thirty-six  to  forty  in  a  horse-box,  via  St.  Denis  to 
Boulogne,  where  we  stopped  until  3  p.m.  on  the 
Sunday  afternoon  of  October  the  eighteenth.  As 
usual,  many  rumours  were  afloat,  the  strongest 
being  that  we  were  going  on  garrison  duty  to  some 
quiet  little  place,  to  pick  up  strength  once  more. 
That  quiet  little  place  turned  out  to  be  Ypres  ! 
The  reason  of  our  stoppage  in  Boulogne  was  that 
a  train  in  front  of  us,  also  a  troop  train,  had  met 
with  an  accident ;  seventeen  men  had  been  killed  : 
so  we  had  to  wait  whilst  the  line  was  being  cleared. 
We  were  supposed  to  stay  with  the  train,  but  a 
good  many  men  went  into  the  town.  Conse- 
quently the  train  moved  off  suddenly,  leaving  one 
hundred  men  and  three  Officers  behind  in  Bou- 
logne. They  eventually  joined  us,  each  man 
receiving  fourteen  days  Number  One  Field  punish- 
ment. 

G9 


70  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

Leaving  Boulogne,  we  travelled  some  way  up 
the  line,  detraining  at  a  small  station  called  Arneke. 
Early  next  morning  they  marched  us  on  to  Cassel, 
where  we  stayed  one  day,  marching  out  next 
morning  in  brigade  order.  We  proceeded  via 
Beaulieu  and  Poperinghe,  resting  for  the  night  a  few 
miles  north  of  the  latter  place. 

The  following  day  we  proceeded  very  slowly,  and 
scouts  were  sent  out  to  our  right  into  a  wood  on  the 
look-out  for  the  enemy.  Evidently  everything  was 
in  order,  as  we  advanced  through  that  wood  during 
the  night.  On  the  way  we  met  many  horse- 
ambulances  returning  filled  with  wounded.  Emerg- 
ing from  the  wood,  we  arrived  at  the  town  of 
Boesnighe,  and  that  night  we  found  billets  there. 
Moving  off  early  the  next  evening  in  a  south- 
easterly direction,  after  marching  the  whole  of  that 
night  with  fixed  bayonets  and  hushed  voices,  we 
went  into  action  the  next  morning. 


Germans  a.ofoancecf/rom  here  (o 


fine  Trenches 


mw''47//7* 


- 
&////////W//?.**** 


O^ 


MAP  3. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    FIGHT    ON    THE    BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK 
ROAD,    OCTOBER    23RD,    1914 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    FIGHT   ON    THE    BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK 
ROAD,    OCTOBER    23RD,    1914 

WE  were,  I  believe,  sent  up  in  reserve  to  the  1st 
Brigade.  Whether  that  is  correct  or  not,  it  is  not 
for  me  to  state — all  I  know  is  that  we  formed  up 
well  behind  the  front  line,  two  companies  taking  the 
first  line  in  extended  order  and  two  companies  the 
second  line  in  the  same  order.  Thus  we  advanced 
about  a  mile  over  flat  open  country  to  the  front 
line.  We  went  up  in  short  rushes,  and  a  word  of 
praise  is  due  to  the  men  who  took  part  in  it.  I 
never  even  on  the  Barrack  Square  or  drill-ground 
saw  a  better  advance  :  the  men  went  up  absolutely 
in  line,  each  man  keeping  his  correct  distance,  and 
that  under  heavy  machine-gun  and  rifle  fire.  Of 
course  some  men  got  knocked  over  ;  but  it  made 
absolutely  no  difference.  One  Officer,  a  Major 
Powell,  carried  a  chair  with  him  the  whole  of  the 
way,  and,  on  reaching  a  hedge,  would  mount  this 
chair  to  get  a  view  of  the  enemy. 

75 


76  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

Two  hundred  yards  off  the  front  line,  we  made 
a  combined  rush  into  it.  There  we  found  the 
Camerons,  with  the  usual  one-man  trench.  The 
man  I  lay  down  behind  told  me  that  they  had  been 
out  there  three  days  and  had  had  no  rations,  and 
also  that  they  had  had  many  men  taken  prisoners. 

In  this  front  line  we  had  a  breather,  the  German 
trenches  being  roughly  three  hundred  yards  away, 
and  a  hedge  was  also  running  parallel  between  the 
two  lines  of  trenches,  with  a  big  gap  facing  us. 
Through  this  gap  we  could  see  the  enemy  retiring 
one  and  two  at  a  time  from  their  trenches.  They 
appeared  like  so  many  rabbits  running  from  their 
holes,  and,  as  they  ran,  so  we  took  pot-shots  at 
them.  After  we  had  had  our  breather,  the  word 
was  given  to  charge  ;  and  this  we  did,  going  through 
in  fine  style.  Just  behind  the  front  line  of  German 
trenches  was  a  house  from  which  we  took  a  number 
of  prisoners.  The  first  man  of  ours  to  reach  it  was 
a  corporal.  He  called  upon  the  Germans  to  sur- 
render and  got  a  bullet  through  the  brain  for  his 
pains.  The  Germans  then  saw  us,  and  were 
obliged  to  surrender,  and  were  given  over  to  men 
to  take  behind.  One  German  Officer  remarked  : 
We  don't  mind — we've  got  Paris,  and  London  is 
in  flames."  One  of  our  Officers  turned  round  and 


o 


MAP  4. 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK  ROAD      79 

said  :  "  You  know  that's  not  true."  Whereon 
he  remarked  :  "  I  know,  but  the  men  believe  it." 

The  troops  we  were  fighting  there  were  on  the 
whole  very  young,  and  they  had  new  clothing  and 
equipment,  and  told  us  that  they  had  left  Germany 
for  what  they  thought  would  be  manoeuvres  in 
Belgium,  and  did  not  expect  seeing  the  firing  line 
for  some  months.  I  myself  really  thought  the  war 
was  over  that  day,  as  Germans  surrendered  from  all 
directions  and  we  overran  their  trenches  every- 
where. 

I  went  on  with  the  first  line,  right  into  the  village 
of  Langemarck.  We  got  to  a  windmill,  where  we 
took  up  position — two  Officers  and  thirty-four  men, 
the  Officers  being  Captain  Craig  and  Lieutenant 
Gardiner  (afterwards  taken  prisoner).  As  it  began 
to  get  dark,  we  set  about  trying  to  find  the  other 
part  of  the  Regiment,  and  another  man  and  myself 
were  sent  out  to  locate  them.  Creeping  along 
quietly  for  about  three  hundred  yards,  we  came  to 
a  trench.  Thinking  it  was  occupied  by  our  own 
men,  we  walked  up,  and  found  it  full  of  Germans  ! 
We  were  off  with  a  volley  behind  us,  but  got  safely 
back,  reporting  the  incident  to  the  Captain.  After 
studying  the  map  for  some  time,  he  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  we  were  cut  off,  and  had  better  wait 


80  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

until  it  was  quite  dark.  This  we  did,  and  success- 
fully found  the  remainder  of  the  Regiment. 

We  had  done  well  that  day  and  set  to  work  with 
a  will  during  the  night  on  a  new  line  of  trenches. 
These  we  held  the  next  day,  being  relieved  again  at 
night  by  a  French  Division,  with  the  exception  of 
about  thirty  of  us,  who  were  unfortunately  left 
behind. 

It  had  happened  this  wise  :  there  was  a  sharp 
bend  in  the  trench,  and  my  platoon  was  round  the 
other  side  of  that  bend.  The  French,  on  coming  up 
the  communication  trench  in  the  dark,  had  gone 
straight  on,  relieved  the  remainder  of  the  Battalion, 
and  had  left  us  there.  The  Battalion,  on  forming 
up  in  the  rear  to  march  off,  had  found  that  we  were 
missing  ;  they  had  waited  for  us  in  a  field,  naturally 
thinking  we  should  join  up  as  soon  as  we  had  been 
relieved.  After  waiting  for  an  hour,  daybreak 
came,  and  the  Germans  had  commenced  to  shell 
them  ;  so  they  had  made  off,  leaving  us  behind. 

We  in  the  trenches  were  rather  worried  by  a 
party  firing  over  our  heads,  apparently  from  be- 
hind, and  the  Germans  were  in  front.  Towards 
daybreak  the  men  on  our  left  commenced  firing 
heavily,  and  the  Officer  in  charge  of  us  (Lieutenant 
Gardiner)  shouted  out  to  know  the  reason  of  it. 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK  ROAD      81 

After  shouting  several  times  and  getting  no  answer, 
he  sent  an  N.C.O.  down  to  inquire.  When  that 
N.C.O.  came  back  and  reported  that  the  trench  wras 
full  of  French  troops,  we  knew  then  the  Regiment 
had  gone  and  had  left  us — anyhow,  Lieutenant 
Gardiner  wrent  behind  and  found  the  men  who  had 
been  firing  over  our  heads  to  be  French  troops  also. 
They  were  in  a  ditch,  evidently  in  the  dark  taking 
this  ditch  to  be  the  line  of  trenches.  Of  course,  on 
being  told  their  mistake,  they  cheerfully  came  up 
and  let  us  fall  to  the  rear. 

On  the  way  back  we  inquired  of  every  one  if  they 
knew  the  whereabouts  of  our  Regiment,  but,  as  no 
one  knew,  we  were  stranded.  We  then  marched  back 
to  our  old  billets  in  Boesinghe,  which  we  had  left  a 
couple  of  days  before.  We  found  no  Regiment 
there,  so  the  Officer  took  us  all  into  an  estaminet 
(beer-shop),  and  ordered  us  coffee  and  food.  We 
then  heard  from  a  Staff  Officer  that  the  Regiment 
had  gone  on  to  Ypres.  It  was  Sunday  morning, 
October  25th,  1914,  when  we  arrived  at  Ypres. 
The  town  was  then  practically  in  its  normal  state, 
being  full  of  civilians  just  returning  from  Mass, 
and  no  German  shell  had  yet  visited  the  town. 
There  we  found  our  Corps  Headquarters,  and  the 
Officer  in  charge  of  us,  having  reported  the  episode 

G 


82  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

of  how  we  got  left  behind  in  the  trenches  and  learnt 
the  whereabouts  of  the  Regiment,  was  told  that  the 
G.O.C.  was  highly  pleased  with  our  work  of  the 
last  two  days,  and  that  when  he  reported  to  the 
C.O.  (Major  Carter),  who  had  joined  us  recently 
and  had  led  us  in  the  last  attack,  he  was  to 
tell  him  that  the  men  who  had  been  left  behind 
were  to  be  struck  off  all  guards,  fatigues,  etc.,  for 
the  next  twenty-four  hours  and  to  be  given  a 
thorough  rest. 

Thus  ended  the  Langemarck  engagement  so  far 
as  we  were  concerned.  On  October  26th,  1914, 
General  Headquarters  issued  the  report,  a  copy 
of  which  appeared  in  the  current  account  of  The 
Times  of  November  17th,  1914,  as  follows  : 

"  THE  GALLANT  NORTH  LANCASHIRES 

"SPECIAL  2ND  BRIGADE  ORDER 

"  26TH  OCTOBER,  1914 

"  In  the  action  of  the  23rd  of  October,  1914,  the 
2nd  Infantry  Brigade  (less  the  2nd  Royal  Sussex 
Regiment  left  at  Boesinghe)  was  allotted  the  task  of 
reinforcing  the  1st  Infantry  Brigade  and  retaking 
the  trenches  along  the  Bipschoote-Langemarck 
Road,  which  had  been  occupied  by  the  enemy.  In 
spite  of  the  stubborn  resistance  offered  by  the 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK  ROAD    83 

German  troops,  the  object  of  the  engagement  was 
accomplished,  but  not  without  many  casualties  in 
the  Brigade. 

"  By  nightfall  the  trenches  previously  captured 
by  the  Germans  had  been  reoccupied,  about  500 
prisoners  captured,  and  fully  1,500  German  dead 
were  lying  out  in  front  of  our  trenches. 

"  The  Brigadier -General  congratulates  the  1st 
Loyal  North  Lancashire  Regiment,  Northampton 
Regiment,  and  the  2nd  K.R.R.C.  (King's  Royal 
Rifle  Corps),  but  desires  specially  to  commend  the 
fine  soldier-like  spirit  of  the  1st  Loyal  North 
Lancashire  Regiment,  which,  advancing  steadily 
under  heavy  shell  and  rifle  fire,  and  aided  by 
machine-guns,  was  enabled  to  form  up  within  a 
comparatively  short  distance  of  the  enemy's 
trenches.  Fixing  bayonets,  the  battalion  then 
charged,  carried  the  trenches,  and  occupied  them ; 
and  to  them  must  be  allotted  the  majority  of  the 
prisoners  captured.  The  Brigadier-General  con- 
gratulates himself  on  having  in  his  Brigade  a 
battalion  which,  after  marching  the  whole  of  the 
previous  night  without  food  or  rest,  was  able  to 
maintain  its  splendid  record  in  the  past  by  the 
determination  and  self-sacrifice  displayed  in  this 
action. 


84  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

"  The  Brigadier-General  has  received  special 
telegrams  of  congratulations  from  both  the 
G.O.C.-in-Chief,  1st  Corps,  and  the  G.O.C.,  1st 
Division,  and  he  hopes  that  in  the  next  engagement 
in  which  the  Brigade  takes  part  the  high  reputation 
which  the  Brigade  already  holds  may  be  further 
added  to. 

"  (Signed)  B.  PAKENHAM,  CAPTAIN, 
"  Brigade  Major  2nd  Infantry  Brigade." 

On  October  26th,  1914,  we  left  our  billets  on  the 
Melin  Road,  and  proceeded  further  up,  halting 
about  halfway  between  Ypres  and  Hooge,  called 
then  by  us  the  "  black  and  white  village."  There 
we  were  placed  in  a  field,  and,  once  more  lining  the 
hedges,  we  stopped  there  the  rest  of  the  day.  A 
regrettable  incident  took  place  towards  evening : 
one  of  our  own  aeroplanes  was  brought  down  by 
our  own  fire,  under  the  impression  that  it  was  an 
enemy.  It  caught  fire  five  hundred  yards  up,  and 
burned  furiously  :  both  men,  pilot  and  observer, 
were  killed. 

The  following  morning,  October  the  twenty- 
seventh,  we  filed  out  of  these  fields,  and,  passing 
through  Hooge,  continued  up  the  road  as  far  as  a 
large  wood  on  the  left  of  the  road  and  about  three 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK  ROAD    85 

miles  from  Ypres  town.  At  the  north  end  of  this 
wood  were  some  batteries  of  artillery  behind  a 
large  chateau,  and  in  this  wood  we  dug  lines  of 
trenches  with  entrenching  tools. 

Next  day,  the  twenty-eighth,  we  were  taken 
from  here  to  another  wood  on  our  left  front  nearly 
half-a-mile  from  the  last.  We  had  a  little  difficulty 
in  reaching  it,  as  the  whole  of  the  distance  was 
within  view  of  the  enemy.  Anyhow,  we  did  the 
distance,  by  platoons,  at  the  double  and  at  a 
hundred  paces  interval. 

This  wood  was  larger  than  the  one  we  had  just 
left,  and  we  commenced  at  once  to  dig  in  at  the  rear 
end.  We  had  had  no  casualties  on  the  journey, 
although  the  Germans  had  shelled  us  with  eighteen- 
pounders,  all  shells,  fortunately,  bursting  at  each 
side  of  the  road.  We  stayed  in  this  wood  until  the 
next  morning,  then  retiring  to  the  one  we  had  come 
from.  We  had  one  or  two  casualties  before  we  left, 
losing  one  or  two  men  wounded  and  a  horse  killed, 
the  enemy's  observation  having  been  attracted  to 
us  by  the  smoke  from  a  fire. 

That  afternoon,  the  twenty-ninth  of  October,  \ve 
proceeded  to  advance  once  more.  Getting  nearly  a 
mile  up  the  main  road,  we  took  the  left  side,  going 
out  in  extended  order.  Thence  we  advanced 


86  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

another  half-mile,  coming  under  shell-fire  ;  when 
we  reached  the  rise,  we  lay  down.  All  this  time  we 
had  seen  nothing  of  the  enemy,  though  bullets  were 
flying  all  around  us.  It  was  then  dark,  but  we  did 
not  stay  there.  Closing  in  on  the  right,  we  came  to 
a  village  :  here  the  bullets  were  very  thick,  but  we 
continued  to  cross  the  village  along  the  main  road 
to  the  right.  The  name  of  this  village  I  never 
heard ;  it  is  now  in  the  enemy's  hands.  In  its  centre 
was  what  looked  like  the  ruins  of  a  windmill  :  we 
could  see  the  arms  and  sails  on  the  ground,  but  the 
remainder  appeared  to  be  nothing  but  a  huge  pile 
of  stones. 

Crossing  the  village  into  some  more  fields,  we 
formed  up  into  line,  and  there  commenced  to  dig 
another  line  of  trenches — the  King's  Royal  Rifles 
on  our  left  and  on  our  right  the  3rd  Brigade,  con- 
sisting of  the  Queen's  Royal  West  Kents,  Welsh 
and  South  Wales  Borderers. 

That  night  we  brought  in  a  German  sniper,  who 
had  evidently  been  wounded  in  the  stomach.  He 
could  not  give  us  any  information,  as  he  was  too 
badly  wounded. 

Later  on,  while  we  were  digging,  the  C.O.  gave 
out  to  us  that  there  was  to  be  no  retirement 
from  here  :  we  were  to  hold  the  position  at  all 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK  ROAD    87 

costs.  The  Rifles  on  our  left  were  commanding 
the  top  of  the  hill,  and,  as  our  line  ran  down  a 
slope,  we  were  ordered  to  dig  our  trenches  forty  feet 
long  facing  the  enemy  but  in  step  fashion,  one 
behind  the  other.  This  we  did,  bringing  the  last 
trench  on  the  right  of  our  line  just  in  front  of  a  wood. 
We  worked  all  night  on  these  trenches,  making  them 
as  strong  as  possible,  knowing  that  there  was  to  be 
no  retirement. 

Next  morning,  the  thirtieth,  we  were  very 
heavily  bombarded,  and  the  bombardment  in- 
creased in  violence  towards  midday,  when  we  were 
ordered  out  of  our  trenches  and  to  advance.  We 
again  moved  up  about  a  thousand  yards,  but  there 
was  still  no  sign  of  the  enemy — shells  were  abun- 
dant. In  front  of  a  farm-house  we  dug  in  again,  and 
then  we  began  to  see  our  troops  retiring  on  the 
right.  Two  or  three  of  the  Welsh  passing  near,  we 
inquired  what  was  going  on,  when  they  replied  : 
"  It's  hell.  The  Queen's  are  absolutely  cut  up  ' 
— which  was  true — what  remained  of  them  were 
sent  down  the  line  for  garrison  duties.  We  then 
began  to  expect  a  little  excitement,  but  it  did  not 
come  off  that  day  ;  and  we  were  once  more  ordered 
to  return  to  the  line  we  had  left  earlier. 

Next    morning,    the    thirty-first,    the    Germans 


88  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

bombarded  us  more  violently  than  ever.  This 
continued  for  several  hours.  The  next  thing  was 
that  we  saw  the  Germans  coming  ;  and  they  did 
come — in  their  thousands.  We  kept  them  off  for 
an  hour  or  two  when  the  C.O.  of  the  King's  Royal 
Rifles  consulted  us,  or  rather  our  C.O.,  about 
retiring.  I  remember  the  two  Officers  having  a 
heated  argument  over  it,  as  they  stood  by  a  farm- 
house immediatelv  in  rear  of  the  line.  I  do  not. 

•/ 

however,  know  what  their  argument  was,  but 
heard  afterwards  that  the  King's  Royal  Rifles  had 
got  short  of  ammunition.  The  words  I  did  hear 
from  our  C.O.  were  :  "  It's  the  General's  orders 
that  we  hold  the  position  at  all  costs,  and  this  I'll  do 
if  I  lose  the  whole  regiment." 

We  continued  to  fire  until  the  Germans  were  on 
our  trenches  and  coming  through  the  line  the 
King's  Royal  Rifles  had  vacated  on  our  left.  I  was 
in  the  third  line  of  steps  near  the  farm-house,  where 
I  overheard  some  of  the  conversation  of  the  two 
C.O.'s.  Just  in  front  of  the  King's  Royal  Rifles' 
trenches  was  a  huge  German  Officer  waving  with 
one  hand  to  the  retiring  Rifles  to  surrender  and  with 
the  other  waving  his  troops  on.  It  did  not  seem 
of  much  good  for  us  few  men  to  attempt  to  fight 
that  dense  mass  of  Germans,  but  we  did  ;  and  out 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK  ROAD    89 

of  the  thousand,  or  thereabouts,  that  we  lined  up 
with  a  couple  of  nights  before  very  few  got  away,  the 
enemy  taking  somewhere  about  four  hundred  of  my 
Regiment  prisoners  and  our  casualties  being  about 
the  same  number. 

I  had  a  run  for  my  life  that  day.  A  chum  of 
mine  who  was  with  us  had  a  cock-fowl  in  his  valise 
that  morning  from  the  farm  ;  he  had  wrung  its  neck 
but  he  had  not  quite  succeeded  in  killing  him  ;  and, 
as  we  ran,  this  bird  began  to  crow.  As  for  myself, 
I  had  no  equipment ;  I  had  run  having  left  it  in 
the  bottom  of  the  trench.  It  is  quite  funny  as  I 
come  to  think  of  it  now — the  old  cock  crowing  as  we 
ran  ;  but  it  was  really  terrible  at  the  time.  We 
were  absolutely  overwhelmed,  not  only  in  our  par- 
ticular spot  but  all  along  the  line,  and  had  to 
concede  nearly  one  thousand  yards  to  the  enemy. 
We  were  also  very  unfortunate  in  losing  our 
Brigadier,  General  Bulfin,  wounded  on  the  cross- 
roads by  a  piece  of  shell,  I  believe  ;  also  our 
Brigade  Major,  who  was  killed  with  another  piece 
from  the  same  shell.  I  am  sure  every  man  in  the 
Brigade  felt  very  keenly  the  loss  of  the  Brigadier  ; 
it  was  he  who  took  us  out  from  Aldershot,  and  not 
a  better  General  or  a  braver  or  cooler  soldier  under 
fire  ever  stepped  on  field  of  battle. 


90  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

Most  of  my  Regiment  being  gone  and  the  remain- 
der mixed  up  with  other  Brigades  which  had 
formed  another  line,  two  chums  and  myself  went  to 
a  farm-house  fifty  yards  behind  this  newly  made 
line.  There  we  had  a  field  battery ;  and,  after 
getting  a  little  rest,  started  out  to  find  the  remnants 
of  the  Regiment.  The  enemy  were  still  shelling, 
and  the  battle  was  still  going  on  ;  but  by  nightfall, 
not  finding  any  of  them,  we  came  back  to  the  old 
house  and  found  the  battery  gone.  We  decided  to 
rest  there  for  the  night  with  some  more  stray  men 
of  different  Regiments.  Just  in  front  of  us,  and  in 
rear  of  the  line,  lay  a  wounded  German.  We 
decided  to  bring  him  in,  and  did  so  :  he  had  been 
hit  in  the  mouth,  half  of  his  tongue  having  been 
taken  away.  The  poor  fellow  was  in  agony,  every 
now  and  then  lying  on  the  ground  and  kicking. 
One  of  our  men  volunteered  to  take  him  back  to 
the  field  ambulance,  and  did  so. 

That  night  we  slept  on  beds  in  the  farm-house,  and 
next  morning,  November  the  first,  after  a  hurried 
breakfast  of  biscuits  and  beef,  we  all  set  out  to  join 
our  respective  Regiments  ;  but,  after  wandering 
about  for  an  hour  and  seeing  no  signs  of  any  of 
ours,  my  two  chums — one  of  them  now  holds  the 
V.C. — decided  to  go  back  to  the  farm-house  and 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK  ROAD    91 

make  a  dinner.  There  was  plenty  of  vegetables  in 
the  garden  and  an  outhouse  full  of  potatoes  ;  and 
we  found  a  spirit-lamp  and  a  pot ;  so  we  com- 
menced to  prepare  our  meal.  In  a  short  time  it  was 
all  in  the  pot,  when — alas  ! — the  Germans  began  to 
shell  our  house,  sending  over  incendiary  shells. 
They  let  us  have  it  battery  fire.  The  first  lot  took 
off  the  off  fore-leg  of  a  cow,  which  along  with  some 
others  was  grazing  at  the  back  of  the  house  ;  the 
poor  thing  hopped  around  on  three  legs  for  a  second 
or  two  and  then  dropped,  the  other  cows  running 
up  to  lick  the  blood  from  its  wound.  The  next  lot 
hit  the  top  of  the  house,  one  shell  taking  away  the 
roof  of  the  scullery,  behind  which  one  of  my  chums 
was  standing  ;  the  other  had  already  run  into  the 
trenches  fifty  yards  away.  I  was  the  last  to  go,  the 
other  two  having  thought  that  I  had  been  hit.  I 
did  not  leave  the  place  until  the  house  was  well 
alight ;  and  three  hours  after,  when  the  enemy's 
guns  had  died  down  and  the  fire  had  burnt  out 
the  house,  I  went  over  to  see  how  the  dinner  had 
got  on,  and  found  it  done  to  a  turn,  cooked  by  the 
heat  from  the  burning  house.  Needless  to  say,  we 
did  full  justice  to  that  dinner — all  three  of  us. 

We  then  went  into  the  trenches  with  the  Scots 
Guards  and  on  the  left  of  them  were  some  of  the 


92  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

Gloucesters.  On  inquiring  if  they  had  seen  any  of 
the  North  Lancashires  they  replied,  "  Yes  ;  they 
had  gone  back  to  the  reserve  trenches  in  the  wood, 
there  to  reorganize."  There  we  found  the  Regiment, 
or  rather  the  few  that  were  left  of  it — about  one 
hundred  and  thirty. 

%/ 

That  night  we  received  from  England  a  draft  of 
reinforcements  one  hundred  strong.  After  resting 
in  those  trenches  that  night,  we  were  taken  a  little 
farther  back  to  a  wood  in  the  front  of  Hooge  and  on 
the  right  side  facing  the  firing  line.  There  we  dug 
new  trenches  and  dug-outs,  and  always  came  back 
to  them  on  after  occasions  to  rest.  We  were  never 
once  taken  into  Ypres  or  any  buildings,  since  the 
enemy  had  during  the  last  few  days  commenced  to 
shell  the  town  and  some  parts  were  on  fire.  This 
information  we  got  from  our  transport  drivers,  who 
had  gone  back  some  way  behind  Ypres. 

We  rested  in  these  trenches  for  two  days,  and 
were  then  called  out — on  the  afternoon  of  the 
second  of  November — in  support  of  the  3rd 
Brigade.  We  went  up  in  the  usual  skirmishing 
order,  three  other  men  and  myself  going  on  in 
front  to  warn  the  C.O.,  when  we  came  into  touch 
with  the  Welsh  Regiment.  We  were  very  heavily 
shelled  going  up,  but  reached  the  Welsh  with 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK  ROAD    93 

insignificant  losses.  Lying  in  front  of  the  Welsh 
and  around  a  farm-house  were  a  party  of  French 
troops.  On  the  word  that  we  had  arrived  and  come 
into  touch  with  the  Welsh,  our  Regiment  was  made 
to  halt  in  a  wood  just  behind  and  lie  down.  We 
were  only  just  off  the  road  a  little  to  the  right,  and 
I  estimate  the  Germans  were  about  seven  hundred 
to  eight  hundred  yards  off.  WThile  we  were  there 
a  4.7  gun  was  brought  up  on  the  road,  and  at  the 
above-mentioned  distance  fired  point-blank  into 
the  advancing  Germans.  An  hour  afterwards,  the 
Welsh  made  a  charge,  and  a  fairly  successful  one  it 
was,  meeting,  as  it  did,  the  enemy  in  the  open. 
They  returned  to  their  original  position,  while  we 
took  up  a  position  to  their  right. 

That  night  we  again  dug  trenches,  and  next  day, 
November  the  third,  we  had  very  little  to  contend 
with — only  shell-fire  ;  and  we  continued  during 
the  day  to  strengthen  our  trenches.  At  night  we 
again  moved  a  little  nearer  to  the  enemy,  and  com- 
menced another  line  of  trenches.  By  next  morning 
we  were  well  dug  in,  and  it  was  a  good  job  that  we 
were,  as  the  Germans  bombarded  us  very  heavily. 
At  that  period  we  did  not  have  lines  of  trenches 
where  one  could  walk  about ;  merely  the  usual  one- 
man  trench.  The  Germans  shelled  us  from  early 


94  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

morning  until  darkness  set  in  and  our  casualty  list 
was  close  on  fifty,  in  addition  to  which  we  lost  our 
C.O.  and  our  Adjutant,  Major  Carter  and  Captain 
Allen,  both  killed. 

I  had  a  fairly  decent  trench  there,  as  I  always 
had  everywhere,  knowing  that  the  harder  I  worked 
on  my  trench  the  more  chance  I  had  of  safety.  I 
here  lost  a  decent  chum,  killed  on  that  day,  the 
fourth  of  November,  by  a  bullet  through  his  brain, 
whilst  he  was  spreading  jam  on  a  biscuit.  When 
it  became  dark  two  of  my  comrades  came  into  my 
decent  trench,  and  there  we  soon  dropped  off  to 
sleep,  all  three  of  us,  the  Germans  shelling  us  all 
the  time.  When  we  awoke,  it  was  nearly  nine 
o'clock  ;  we  were  roused  from  our  sleep  by  some  one 
throwing,  or  rather  showering,  earth  in  upon  us. 
Up  I  jumped  and  inquired  sotto  voce :  "  Who  are 
you  ?  '  Back  came  the  reply  :  Who  are  you  ?  ' 
On  telling  him,  he  replied  that  he  was  a  Royal 
Engineer  digging  a  communication  trench ;  we 
were  not  sorry  to  hear  that  he  was  not  one  of  the 
enemy.  He  then  inquired  what  we  were  doing 
there,  remarking  that  the  Lancashires  had  been 
relieved  and  gone  back  some  time  ago.  After 
wandering  about  for  an  hour,  we  found  the  Regi- 
ment in  the  reserve  trenches  in  the  wood.  Every 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK  ROAD    95 

one  had  settled  down  for  the  night,  rations  and  rum 
had  been  issued,  and  we  had  perforce  to  make  the 
best  of  it.  I  did  not  sleep  so  well  as  usual,  feeling 
the  loss  of  my  pal.  However,  next  morning, 
November  the  fifth,  we  were  told  that,  as  we  had 
had  such  a  hard  time  of  it  of  late,  we  were  to  be 
put  into  reserve  on  some  fairly  easy  trenches  on  the 
left  of  the  road  and  just  in  front  of  the  wood  we 
occupied  on  our  first  coming  up.  All  we  had  to 
contend  with  was  cross-fire  from  the  enemy's 
guns.  It  does  not  sound  very  dreadful,  nor  to  us 
men  did  it  sound  hard  ;  most  of  us  thought  that 
we  were  going  to  have  a  fairly  easy  time  of  it ;  so 
into  the  trenches  we  went  quite  happily.  But 
the  shell-fire  there  was  terrible,  and  the  way  the 
shrapnel  whistled  through  those  trees,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  high  explosives,  fairly  made  one's 
hair  stand  on  end. 

I  was  just  in  front  of  the  wood,  where  we  had  one 
company  entrenched  ;  fifty  yards  in  front  and  the 
other  side  of  a  hedge  was  another  company.  These 
were  the  only  two  companies  we  had,  as  we  had 
become  very  weak.  In  this  reserve  trench  my 
company  lay  for  twenty-four  hours,  exchanging 
with  the  company  in  front  of  us  at  the  end  of  that 
time  for  another  twenty-four  hours  ;  but  we  were 


96  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

kept  in  that  line  for  another  four  days  through  an 
unfortunate  incident.  We  went  into  the  front  line 
of  the  reserve  trenches  on  Saturday,  November  the 
sixth.  In  front  of  us  were  supposed  to  be  the 
Zouaves.  On  our  right  front  fifty  yards  off  was  a 
small  house  beside  the  road,  the  hedge  just  behind 
us  running  parallel  but  gradually  getting  to  a  point 
at  the  extremity  of  the  trench,  which  ended  in  a 
cul-de-sac.  Just  over  the  top  and  in  line  with  the 
main  trench  was  a  small  trench,  which  we  called 
the  Thirteen  Trench,  as  thirteen  men  occupied  it. 
It  was  situated  just  off  the  road  and  commanded 
a  view  straight  up  it.  Fifty  yards  along  the  main 
trench  was  a  communication  trench  reaching  to  the 
hedge,  where  it  stopped,  letting  us  out  on  the  other 
side.  Sunday  morning,  November  the  eighth, 
broke  with  a  heavy  mist ;  it  was  one  of  those  hazy 
mornings  that  denote  heat.  Every  one  was  taking 
things  fairly  easy,  when  a  man  next  to  me,  on 
glancing  over  the  top,  exclaimed  :  "  Look  !  here's 
the  Germans." 

We  thereupon  sent  for  the  Officer,  but  he  could 
hardly  believe  his  eyes  :  we  were  then  supposed  to 
be  in  reserve.  The  enemy  was  advancing  upon  us 
in  close  formation  fully  a  thousand  strong,  and  our 
full  strength  could  not  have  been  more  than  a 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK  ROAD    97 

hundred  in  that  trench  and  a  hundred  in  the 
trenches  behind,  as  I  know  that  the  whole  Regiment 
at  that  time  was  not  more  than  two  hundred  and 
thirty  (not  including  Transport). 

They  were  advancing  by  way  of  the  little  house 
and  on  to  the  Thirteen  Trench.  We  kept  up  a 
brisk  fire  for  a  considerable  time  into  the  advancing 
masses  ;  but  we  were  hopelessly  outclassed,  and 
had  to  fall  back  on  our  other  company  behind.  On 
reaching  them,  we  all  retired  into  the  wood,  drawing 
the  enemy  in  behind  us.  It  proved  to  be  a  fine 
piece  of  strategy,  as  we  drew  them  on  to  unfamiliar 
ground  and  away  from  the  trenches.  We  then 
turned  round  and  made  a  counter-attack,  driving 
them  well  back  and  leaving  heaps  of  them  dead  and 
wounded  behind. 

We  had  almost  reached  our  original  line,  when  a 
chum  of  mine  called  to  me  by  name.  I  went  over 
to  him,  and  found  him  lying  on  the  ground  :  he  had 
been  hit  and  could  not  help  himself,  and  he  asked 
me  to  take  him  back  to  the  dressing-station.  I 
could  not  well  refuse ;  so,  dragging  him  and 
carrying  as  best  I  could,  I  made  for  the  road,  and 
there  we  nearly  both  got  taken  by  the  Germans, 
who  were  coming  down  that  road  in  hundreds,  and 
were  only  a  few  yards  off.  So  I  had  to  drag  my 

H 


98  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

man  back  into  the  wood,  dropping  into  a  ditch  with 
him  at  the  side  of  the  road,  where  I  was  able  to 
ascertain  the  extent  of  his  wound.  There  was  not 
much  to  show — only  a  small  bullet-hole  through  his 
hip  entering  his  stomach.  In  this  ditch  was  a 
Zouave  ;  and  he  gave  me  some  black  stuff  that 
looked  like  coffee.  Getting,  a  little  later,  into  the 
wood,  I  was  able  to  take  him  that  way  to  the 
dressing- station.  I  heard  a  few  weeks  afterwards 
that  he  had  died  from  his  wound. 

On  arriving  back,  I  found  that  the  Regiment  had 
again  retired  a  little  way  behind  the  trenches  we 
had  before  occupied  ;  and  I  also  found  that  I  had 
lost  another  old  and  valued  chum,  the  one  who  had 
originally  enlisted  with  me  and  had  up  till  that  time 
been  through  the  campaign  unscathed.  I  am 
thankful  to  say  he  was  not  badly  wounded,  although 
he  lost  the  use  of  his  left  hand.  There  were  not 
many  of  us  left ;  our  ranks  were  more  depleted  than 
ever ;  not  more  than  seventy  or  eighty  all  told 
remained — nevertheless,  they  were  planning  to 
retake  the  trenches.  On  reaching  the  communi- 
cation trench  unmolested,  we  started  to  file  in, 
myself  going  second  man.  Of  all  the  trenches  I 
had  been  in  that  was  quite  the  worst :  we  had  to 
absolutely  walk  the  whole  of  the  way  over  dead 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK   ROAD     99 

bodies — our  own  men  and  Germans.  It  was  eight 
o'clock  at  night,  and  of  course  dark,  which  made  our 
task  more  unpleasant ;  but  we  reached  the  end  of 
the  communication  trench  safely,  though  we  had 
not  got  more  than  three  or  four  yards  down  the 
main  trench  to  the  right,  where  it  ended  in  a  cul- 
de-sac,  before  a  German  patrol  of  about  twelve  men 
came  walking  along  the  top  of  the  trench.  We 
waited  until  they  were  on  top  of  us — then  I  let 
drive.  I  can  hear  the  yell  of  the  fellow  I  hit  to  this 
day,  as  he  threw  up  his  hands  and  dropped.  The 
man  next  to  me  on  my  left  also  let  go,  and  I  thought 
he  had  blown  the  top  of  my  head  off ! — he  must 
have  had  the  muzzle  of  his  rifle  quite  close  to  my 
ear,  as  I  was  deaf  for  some  time  afterwards.  He 
thought  I  was  hit ! 

On  gaining  the  end  of  the  trench,  I  was,  with 
three  others,  sent  into  the  communication  trench 
to  clear  out  the  dead.  A  London  Scottish  Officer 
— they  had  only  been  out,  or  rather  in  action  a 
week — came  up  with  his  men  to  relieve  us,  and 
remarked  to  our  Captain,  who  was  the  C.O.,  that 
he  did  not  mind  seeing  dead  Germans  but  he  did 
object  to  walking  upon  them  ;  so  we  had  the  job  of 
clearing  them  out,  which  we  did  in  this  way  :  two 
men  stayed  in  the  trench  and  two  stood  on  the  top 


100  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

of  it,  the  two  in  the  trench  each  lifting  a  leg  of  the 
dead  man  up  to  the  two  men  on  top,  who  then 
hauled  him  over.     We  had  been  at  work  for  about 
an  hour  at  this  interesting  job,  when  who  should 
walk  along  the  top  under  cover  of  a  hedge  but 
a  German  right  up  to  where  we  were  working  !     He 
was   fully  equipped,   but  we  had   discarded  our 
equipment,  on  account  of  it  hindering  us  at  our 
task.     On  reaching  us,  I  exclaimed  to  my  pal,  who 
was  bending  over  in  the  trench  :  "  Look,  chummy, 
here's  a  German  !  '      The  two  men  on  top  having 
just  gone  further  up  had  not  seen  him.     On  hearing 
me  speak,  the  German  made  a  motion  with  his 
hands  and  said,    "  Hush  !  '      I   was   never   more 
surprised  in  all  my  life — he  evidently  took  us  for 
Germans,  too.     I  then  said  to  my  pal  :     "  Find 
us  a  rifle  "  :    there  were  plenty  at  the  bottom  of 
the  trench.     He  handed  me  one  up,  and,  pointing 
it  at  the  German,  I  was  foolish  enough   to   say  : 
"Hands    up!"     He    again    said:     "Hush!"     I 
said  to  my  pal :     '  Hand  me  up  some  ammunition, 
quick."     He    handed    me    up    five    rounds,    and, 
pulling  one  out  of  the  clip,  I  placed  it  in  the  breech 
of  my  rifle.     When  the  German  heard  the  bolt  of 
the  rifle  go  home,  he  turned  round  and  bolted  off 
— but  he  was  too  late :   I  had  him  right  through 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANG'EMARCK  ROAI)    101 

the  back.     We  thought*  it ' best;  then,  to  return  to 
the  company  ;   and  we  did  so. 

When  we  had  reported  this  little  episode,  I 
remarked  to  the  Captain  that  I  thought  the  man 
had  come  from  the  Thirteen  Trench.  He  replied  : 
"  That's  all  bosh."  While  we  had  been  away 
there  had  evidently  been  a  discussion  over  this 
Thirteen  Trench,  and  the  Captain  had  asked  a  man 
who  had  been  in  it  early  the  day  before  we  had  been 
driven  out  to  go  over  the  top — only  a  matter  of 
ten  yards — and  see  who  was  occupying  it  then. 
This  man  said  that  he  knew  a  safer  way  round, 
when  the  Captain  said  :  "  Take  two  more  men  and 
go  over."  Again  this  man  replied,  asking  if  he 
might  not  go  round.  Then  the  Captain,  becoming 
wild,  said  :  "If  three  of  you  won't  go,  thirteen  of 
you  go.  If  you  prefer  to  go  the  other  way  round,  go, 
and  I'll  come  and  see  you  do  go."  I  made  one  of 
those  thirteen,  and  we  filed  down  the  communica- 
tion trench  ;  and,  coming  out  on  the  other  side  of 
the  hedge,  we  crept  along  behind  it  amidst  the 
cries  of  several  wounded  soldiers  of  both  sides  until 
we  came  to  the  gap  in  the  hedge  facing  this  small 
Thirteen  Trench  a  few  yards  away.  The  Captain 
was  leading,  then  another  man,  and  then  myself. 
We  had  no  sooner  reached  the  top  o"  the  trench 


102  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

than  a  guttural  voice 'challenged  "  Halt !  "  and  then 
I  could  see  the  forms  of  the  Germans  :  they  were 
packed  in  there  like  sardines.  Of  course,  the  next 
minute  they  had  opened  fire,  our  Captain  and 
C.O.  being  killed  on  the  spot ;  the  remainder  of  us, 
being  unprepared,  turned  and  ran.  The  Zouaves, 
who  had  then  taken  up  a  position  behind  us,  think- 
ing it  was  the  Germans  coming,  opened  fire  on  us, 
too  ;  and  there  were  we  running  between  two 
fires  !  I  remember  on  coming  close  to  the  Zouaves' 
line  that  I  took  a  flying  leap  clean  on  top  of  one  of 
them  as  he  was  about  to  shoot.  I  knocked  him 
down,  of  course  ;  but,  on  getting  up  and  seeing 
who  I  was,  he  clasped  his  arms  around  me,  very 
pleased  that  I  was  not  a  German.  Then,  along 
with  the  remainder  of  the  men,  I  returned  to  our 
old  trench,  reporting  to  the  only  Officer  we  had  left 
the  death  of  our  Captain. 

As  we  could  not  hand  over  the  trenches  complete, 
the  Germans  having  possession  of  the  Thirteen 
Trench,  we  were  not  relieved  by  the  London 
Scottish,  as  it  is  a  rule  with  the  Regular  Army 
that,  on  being  relieved,  trenches  have  to  be  handed 
over  precisely  as  they  were  taken  over,  any  that 
may  have  been  lost  having  to  be  retaken.  Conse- 
quently we  were  kept  in  these  trenches  another 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK    ROAD  103 

forty-eight  hours,  and  during  that  time  we  were,  if 
possible,  to  retake  the  one  we  had  lost. 

As  we  were  so  very  weak  we  were  reinforced  by  a 
platoon  of  the  2nd  Black  Watch  and  one  machine- 
gun  belonging  to  them.  The  gun  was  fixed  in 
position  at  the  bottom  of  the  communication 
trench  close  to  the  hedge,  so  as  to  cover  any  move- 
ment of  the  enemy  from  the  Thirteen  Trench.  At 
the  bottom  of  the  main  trench  and  in  that  traverse 
we  had  eight  men  ten  yards  away,  and  in  line  were 
the  enemy  occupying  the  Thirteen  Trench.  At 
daybreak  the  next  morning  each  of  our  eight  men 
received  a  bullet  in  his  head  from  the  waiting  Ger- 
mans, six  being  killed  outright  and  two  wounded. 

I  was  then  sent  with  five  other  men  to  fill  their 
places,  and  our  orders  were  to  lie  down  in  the 
bottom  of  the  trench  and  not  show  ourselves,  as  our 
machine-gun  was  trained  directly  over  the  top  to 
the  Thirteen  Trench  beyond  us,  and  on  any  move 
being  made  by  the  enemy  the  gun  would  instantly 
open  fire  directly  over  us.  My  comrades  and  myself 
lay  there  the  whole  of  the  day ;  the  stench  from 
the  dead  men  who  had  been  killed  that  morning  was 
sickening — indeed,  the  whole  of  that  trench  smelt 
of  blood,  warm  blood  as  from  a  slaughter-house, 
which  in  fact  it  was.  We  all  got  very  cramped 


104          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

towards  evening,  and  a  great  deal  of  grumbling  was 
going  on,  as  in  the  ordinary  course  of  events  we 
should  have  been  relieved  by  that  time  and  back 
resting.  Some  one  at  length  suggested  going  to  the 
Officer  to  ask  for  relief  and  beg  him  to  exchange  us 
with  some  men  higher  up  the  trench,  who  had  more 
freedom.  I  was  asked  if  I  would  be  spokesman. 
Replying  in  the  affirmative,  I  went  to  the  Officer 
and  explained  the  case,  telling  him  how  cramped 
we  had  become.  He  asked  me  where  I  had  come 
from.  When  I  told  him,  he  asked  me  who  gave  me 
permission  to  leave  my  post :  I  replied  no  one,  but 
that  I  was  the  oldest  soldier,  whereupon  he  came 
with  me  to  the  bottom  of  the  trench,  and,  address- 
ing the  men,  promised  them  he  would  relieve  them 
as  soon  as  possible.  He  also  said  :  "  You  have 
nothing  to  fear  while  I  am  with  you  ;  the  Germans 
are  ten  yards  off."  After  further  promising  to  send 
the  relief,  he  departed.  We  then  decided,  as  night 
was  falling,  that  three  of  us  should  keep  watch  for 
the  first  hour  and  the  other  three  for  the  second 
hour,  carrying  on  like  that  alternately  throughout 
the  night. 

The  night  was  very  black  and  the  gloom  very 
thick,  and  we  could  not  see  a  movement  of  the 
enemy  ten  yards  away,  but  could  imagine  all  sorts 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK   ROAD   105 

of  forms  and  shapes  in  front  of  us.  I  think  it  was 
during  our  second  watch  that  we  discerned  what 
we  thought  to  be  three  forms  moving  behind  the 
enemy  trench  and  making  for  the  road  ;  so  one  of 
us  fired.  We  heard  a  yell  and  concluded  we  had 
got  somebody.  During  the  third  watch  my  two 
comrades  grew  very  tired,  and,  getting  down  with 
the  other  men  at  the  bottom  of  the  trench  at  my 
bidding,  were  soon  fast  asleep.  I  then  pulled  two 
of  the  dead  bodies  to  the  end  of  the  trench  and  stood 
them  up  against  the  wall  facing  the  enemy  to  make 
them  appear  as  if  there  \vere  more  of  us.  I  had 
no  sooner  done  this  than  a  German  got  stealthily 
out  of  his  trench ;  and,  creeping  along  behind  the 
hedge  and  to  the  rear  of  our  line,  up  popped 
another,  and  then  another.  Whereupon  I  sent 
word  of  the  enemy's  movements  via  the  next 
traverse  to  the  Officer,  asking  what  I  should  do.  In 
the  meantime  I  was  doing  all  I  could  to  awaken  my 
comrades  ;  but  they  were  so  sound  asleep  that, 
although  I  was  kicking  them,  I  could  not  get  them 
to  budge.  The  word  then  came  back  from  the 
Officer  to  say  we  were  to  do  nothing — not  even  to 
fire  a  shot,  as  the  machine-gun  was  trained  upon  the 
enemy,  waiting  for  them  to  come  up.  I  was  in  a 
very  awkward  position,  as  I  could  see  the  line  of 


106          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

enemy  trenches  in  front,  and  the  one  they  were 
coming  out  of  on  our  flank,  and  I  had  to  stand  there 
and  say  nothing  whilst  they  crept  around  the  back 
of  us.  I  began  to  get  "  wind  up  "  (frightened),  as 
by  this  time  they  were  six  to  one  against  me,  and, 
being  the  end  man,  I  had  no  chance  whatsoever. 
No  doubt  I  should  have  accounted  for  one  or  two 
of  them,  but  I  should  never  have  got  away  myself. 

This  situation  continued  for  about  twenty 
minutes.  I  had  at  last  been  able  to  arouse  my 
comrades,  when  an  order  came  down  for  the  North 
Lancashires  to  file  out :  we  were  being  relieved  by 
the  West  Riding  Regiment.  I  may  state  that  I 
never  heard  such  welcome  words  in  my  life  !  How 
the  West  Ridings  fared  after  that  I  do  not  know, 
but  I  do  know  that  I  was  well  out  of  it  ! 

That  night  we  returned  to  our  old  reserve 
trenches  for  rest  at  Hooge  ;  and  next  day  a  message 
from  General  French  was  read  out  to  us,  praising 
us  for  the  work  we  had  done  and  regretting  that  he 
had  had  to  keep  us  so  long  in  action  without  a  rest. 
We  had  been  either  marching  or  fighting  since  the 
middle  of  August,  and  it  was  then  the  middle  of 
November,  but  he  did  not  think  we  should  have 
to  go  into  the  trenches  again  before  we  had  had  our 
long-deferred  and  well-earned  rest. 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK   ROAD    107 

That  night  the  3rd  Battalion  Scots  Guards,  just 
out  from  England,  came  into  the  wood  also,  and  a 
fresh  Regiment  of  Zouaves  joined  us.  We  were  all 
very  pleased  to  think  that  wre  were  about  to  be 
relieved,  and  I  remember  well  taking  a  dozen  field 
post-cards  from  different  men  of  the  Scots  Guards  to 
post  as  we  went  down  the  line.  We  marched  out 
at  eight  o'clock,  every  one  convinced  that  we  were 
going  to  have  our  rest,  when,  on  reaching  the  road, 
instead  of  marching  towards  Ypres,  they  took  us 
towards  the  trenches.  Even  then  we  thought  wre 
were  going  for  our  rest,  some  suggesting  that  we 
were  on  our  way  to  a  meeting-place  for  the  Brigade  ; 
others  took  it  to  be  another  way  round — "  Yes,  via 
Germany,"  remarked  some  one.  Well,  we  did  not 
get  our  rest :  we  went  into  the  trenches  again  on 
two  occasions  after  that,  and  for  forty-eight-hour 
stretches.  At  length  we  were  relieved  by  the 
Guards  Brigade,  and  went  back  to  Hazebruck  by 
easy  stages. 

I  should  like  to  say  a  fe\v  words  about  Ypres 
before  I  close  the  account  of  my  experiences  there. 
We  were  during  the  whole  of  the  first  Battle,  from 
October  the  twenty-third  to  the  seventeenth  of 
November,  1914,  fighting  in  the  trenches  all  the 
time,  with  the  exception  of  the  first  three  days.  I 


108          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

was  in  the  Bipschoote-Langemarck-road  engage- 
ment, in  what  is  now  better  known  as  "  the  Ypres 
salient."  From  the  time  when  I  first  went  there 
until  October  the  thirty-first  our  front  line  was  fully 
six  kilometres  from  Ypres  town,  but  between  the 
twenty-third  and  the  thirty-first  of  October  the 
Germans  gained  from  us  quite  three  to  four  kilo- 
metres. We  did  not  regard  this  as  a  defeat  to  the 
British  arms,  as  at  that  time  the  enemy  were,  with- 
out exaggeration,  six  to  one  against  us,  and  they  were 
also  much  better  equipped  with  artillery.  On  the 
contrary,  I  wish  to  pay  my  humble  tribute  to  all 
ranks  who  served  during  that  time,  short  as  they 
were  of  men,  sometimes  even  putting  the  military 
police  into  the  trenches,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
cavalry  and  cyclist  corps.  It  was  there  that  we 
finished  off  the  remainder  of  what  was  the  original 
Prussian  Guards,  as  well  as  the  Bavarian  Guards  ; 
and  to-day  the  British  nation  has  to  thank  those 
troops  who  fought  so  well  during  that  time,  and 
put  a  finish  to  the  chance  of  the  Germans  ever  reach- 
ing Calais,  and  thence  England. 

My  Regiment  entered  Ypres  not  less  than  one 
thousand  strong,  and  while  there  we  had  five  lots  of 
reinforcements  :  we  came  away  with  only  seventy- 
five  men  and  one  Officer,  a  Lieutenant.  I  do  not, 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK   ROAD    109 

however,  in  my  above  remarks  refer  specially  to 
my  own  Regiment  any  more  than  to  any  other 
Regiment  in  my  Brigade  or  Division — all  the 
Regiments  in  the  1st  Division  were  splendid : 
though  some  may  have  been  a  little  better  than  the 
others  where  all  were  very  good. 

We  went  then  to  relieve  the  7th  Division  after  it 
had  fought  the  rearguard  action  from  Antwerp, 
and  we  were  only  just  in  the  nick  of  time,  for  the 
Division  had  suffered  very  heavily.  Altogether 
with  reinforcements  the  1st  Division  must  have 
lost  thirty  thousand  men  in  stopping  the  great  rush 
for  Calais.  When  we  entered  Ypres  everything  was 
normal  ;  but  when  we  came  out  of  it  the  town  was 
in  ruins  and  burning  furiously  in  several  parts. 

At  Hazebruck  we  rested  for  close  on  a  month. 
By  "  rested  '  I  mean  away  from  the  firing  line. 
Of  work  we  had  plenty.  Two  days  before  leaving 
Ypres  we  were  joined  by  a  draft  of  six  hundred 
from  home,  which  had  been  kept  behind  with  the 
Transport  until  we  should  come  out  of  the  firing 
line.  Captain  Smart,  who  was  with  this  draft, 
took  over  the  Temporary  Commanding  Officer's 
duties  during  the  three-days'  march  to  Hazebruck, 
where  we  arrived  in  a  snowstorm,  and  were  billeted 
in  private  houses  at  the  rear  of  the  railway  station 


110          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

and  running  along  near  the  line.  Whilst  there,  we 
received  two  further  large  drafts  from  England, 
and  we  also  had  a  lot  of  men  sent  back  medically 
unfit  on  account  of  defective  teeth,  etc.  Even 
there  we  were  not  left  in  peace,  doing  each  day 
either  route  marches  or  brigade  training.  To  every 
man  new  clothes  and  underlinen  were  issued  ;  and 
we  all  had  to  have  a  bath  ! — an  amusing  affair,  that 
took  place  in  a  rag-shop.  A  canvas  bath  had  been 
rigged  up,  and  each  Company  took  it  in  turn  to 
bathe,  the  water  being  fetched  by  the  cooks  in 
dixies.  We  had  about  four  of  these  dixies  filled 
with  about  twenty  quarts  of  water  to  each  bath, 
with  some  strong  disinfectant  put  in  it.  About 
one  hundred  men  would  bathe  to  each  bath,  the  last 
dozen  or  so  revelling  in  pea-soup.  Every  one  had 
to  go  in — as  at  that  time  we  all  had  plenty  of  live 
stock  crawling  over  us — under  the  eyes  of  the 
Company  Officer  and  two  or  three  N.C.O.'s.  Enemy 
aircraft  was  continually  flying  over  us,  and  one 
Sunday  morning  an  airman  dropped  eight  bombs, 
which  killed  several  civilians,  mostly  children,  and 
caused  sixteen  casualties  amongst  men  of  my 
Regiment. 

We    left    Hazebruck    on    Monday    morning    by 
motor  omnibuses  on  December  the  twenty-first. 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK  ROAD    111 

going  through  Merville  to  Festubert.  Four  miles 
from  Festubert  we  left  the  buses,  and  during  the 
afternoon,  waiting  on  the  roadside  for  orders,  we 
for  the  first  time  came  across  our  Indian  troops. 
The  Meerut  Division  and  4th  Corps  were  operating 
around  that  district.  On  the  cross-roads  at  Le 
Touret  we  waited  until  dusk,  and  then  moved  up 
the  road  about  a  mile  to  the  Rue-de-L'Epinette, 
Festubert,  where  we  were  told  that  each  Regiment 
in  the  Brigade  had  to  attack  and  take  at  least  one 
trench.  From  the  Rue-de-L'Epinette  we  were 
taken  across  several  fields  for  about  a  mile,  when 
the  Brigade  made  a  charge.  It  had  then  become 
dark  and  we  were  on  ground  that  we  had  never 
been  on  before  ;  but  we  succeeded  in  taking  three 
lines  of  trenches — the  Regiment  on  our  left  taking 
one,  though  that  on  our  right  was  not  successful. 
I  honestly  believe  that  it  was  a  ruse  on  the  part  of 
the  enemy,  as  we  did  not  take  a  single  prisoner,  and 
had  only  a  few  casualties  ourselves. 

That  night  I  was  doing  duty  as  an  orderly, 
bringing  up  the  machine-gun  section  and  also  two 
mess -waiters  with  refreshments  for  the  Officers. 
A  funny  incident  happened  on  the  way  up.  A  house 
just  to  the  left  of  the  farm  where  Battalion  Head- 
quarters were  posted  had  caught  fire,  and  another 


112          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

orderly  on  the  way  down  from  there  said  to  me  : 
"  Be  careful  which  way  you  go,  as  I  think  that  house 
which  is  burning  is  in  the  German  lines  ;  so  bear 
off  to  the  right."  This  the  two  waiters  and  myself 
did  ;  and,  after  tramping  along  for  some  time  and 
crossing  several  ditches,  I  gave  it  up,  declaring 
that  I  had  lost  the  way.  In  front  we  could  see 
some  yew  trees  lining  a  ditch  about  a  hundred 
yards  off,  so  we  made  up  our  minds  to  go  as  far  as 
that,  and  reached  the  trees  safely ;  but  as  we  got 
there  bullets  began  to  fall  with  a  plop  into  the 
ground  at  our  feet ;  so  we  thought  we  had  better  go 
round  the  other  side.  It  was,  however,  just  as  bad 
there,  and  in  front  we  saw  a  trench  ;  so  we  thought 
we  would  investigate  a  bit.  Creeping  up  quietly 
to  the  parapet,  we  peeped  over  :  several  Germans, 
unarmed  and  burdened  with  two  jugs  of  coffee  and 
a  basket  of  provisions,  greeted  our  eyes.  We  very 
soon  made  off  back  again,  and  had  not  gone  more 
than  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  before  we  came  to 
a  garden  surrounding  a  farm-house.  It  turned 
out  to  be  the  very  house  I  was  seeking,  but  of  course 
I  could  not  then  recognize  it,  as  it  was  night-time, 
nor  was  it  familiar  to  me,  as  it  had  been  night-time 
when  I  first  went  into  it.  We  were  only  about 
thirty  yards  off  and  could  hear  a  babel  of  sounds, 


BIPSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK   ROAD    113 

but  very  unlike  the  English  language.  So  I  sug- 
gested that  the  best  thing  we  could  do  was  to  lie 
down  under  cover  of  the  hedge,  and  wait  until 
some  one  came  along.  If  he  proved  to  be  English, 
well  and  good  ;  if  German,  we  should  have  to  get 
out  of  it  the  best  way  we  could.  We  had  not  long 
to  wait  before  three  forms  loomed  in  the  distance 
through  the  gloom  ;  and  then  we  were  all  of  a 
tremble  !  Fortunately  they  turned  out  to  be  three 
of  our  own  Tommies,  so  we  waited  till  they  had 
passed,  and  then  we  went  in.  Many  a  laugh  over 
the  affair  have  those  two  waiters  and  myself  had 
on  after  occasions. 

Next  morning,  December  the  twenty-second,  we 
were  properly  let  in.  The  enemy  commenced  to 
shell  us,  continuing  for  some  hours  ;  then  they 
came  up  in  force.  Unfortunately,  by  taking  those 
three  lines  of  trenches  the  night  before,  we  had  got 
too  far  in  front ;  and  consequently  we  were  sur- 
rounded before  we  knew  where  wre  were.  Any- 
how, with  bombs  and  rifle -fire  (our  machine-gun 
section  being  behind  and  not  in  position  by  then), 
we  kept  them  off  as  long  as  we  could — then  we  had 
a  run  for  it,  as  the  Company  on  our  left  had  had 
to  give  in.  There  were  very  few  of  us  left  that 
day  ;  but  our  machine-gun  soon  got  into  action, 

i 


114          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

and  held  the  position  until  reinforcements  came  up, 
when  the  remainder  of  us  formed  up  in  the  Rue-de- 
L'Epinette.  When  the  roll  was  called  we  num- 
bered one  hundred  and  thirty  Officers  and  men  out 
of  eight  hundred  and  thirty  who  went  into  action 
seventeen  hours  before.  Our  C.O.,  Major  Powell, 
was  very  much  upset,  remarking  that  there  had 
been  a  grave  mistake  somewhere,  and  he  would 
immediately  go  to  the  General  for  satisfaction : 
we,  of  course,  did  not  hear  how  he  got  on. 

That  night  we  were  taken  to  Lacature  until  all 
the  stragglers  had  joined  up :  they  made  the 
Regiment  up  to  about  two  hundred  ;  and  next  day 
we  marched  off  to  Essairs,  just  the  other  side  of  the 
canal  of  Bethune,  where  we  spent  a  quiet  but  not 
joyous  Christmas  Day,  as  we  felt  greatly  the  loss 
we  had  sustained  two  days  before. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

LA   BASSEE   DISTRICT 


CHAPTER  VIII 

LA   BASSEE   DISTRICT 

NEXT  day,  Boxing  Day,  December  the  twenty-sixth, 
1914,  we  once  more  packed  our  traps,  and,  marching 
via  Beuvry  and  Annequin,  entered  Cambrin.  The 
first  four  days  we  were  billeted  in  houses  and  shops, 
which  had  been  shelled  to  pieces,  and  set  to  work 
digging  ways  through  the  walls  of  cellars  for 
means  to  get  out  should  the  house  be  hit  again  by 
a  shell  during  a  bombardment.  That  night  a 
night-attack  by  the  enemy  was  expected  and  the 
usual  precautions  were  taken  ;  it  came  to  nothing. 
Although  this  village  was  in  ruins  and  only  about 
two  thousand  yards  from  the  enemy's  front  line, 
civilians  continued  to  live  there. 

Between  the  twenty-sixth  of  December  and  the 
twenty-ninth  of  December  there  was  "  nothing 
doing  " :  most  of  the  Regiment  were  emp'oyed  in 
the  communication  trenches,  cleaning  up  and 
carrying  planks  to  lay  on  the  bottom,  some  parts 
of  the  trenches  being  deep  in  mud  and  water.  In 

117 


118          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

the  "  Old  Kent  Road,"  a  trench  running  from  the 
church  at  Quinchy  to  the  front  line  was  in  a  really 
dreadful  state  :  one  had  to  wade  through  mud  and 
water  like  whipped  cream  up  to  the  arm-pits. 

On  the  twenty-ninth  we  received  a  draft  of 
sixty-nine  men  and  three  Officers  straight  from  the 
base.  They  were  sent  into  the  trenches  the  next 
day  on  the  Givenchy  side  of  the  canal  to  reinforce 
the  2nd  Royal  Sussex.  All  they  had  had  on  leaving 
the  base  had  been  their  rations  of  bully-beef  and 
biscuits,  and,  on  coining  out  twenty-four  hours 
afterwards,  had  had  to  join  the  Regiment  and  go 
into  a  charge  with  the  Scots  Guards  on  the  Quinchy 
side  commonly  known  as  the  "  Brickfields."  In 
these  fields,  and  about  two  kilometres  from  La 
Bassee,  were  three  huge  brick-stacks,  around  which 
we  built  fortifications  ;  these  stacks  were  also  very 
useful  for  our  snipers  and  observers,  who  took  up 
positions  on  the  top.  On  the  left  of  the  fields  was 
the  railway  track,  and  in  rear  of  that,  running 
parallel  to  it,  was  the  canal ;  on  the  other  side  of 
which  lay  Givenchy. 

On  Wednesday,  December  the  thirtieth,  we  had 
one  Company  in  the  trenches  as  I  have  already 
stated  ;  on  Thursday,  the  thirty-first,  report  came 
through  that  the  enemy  had  broken  through  the 


MAP  5. 


LA  BASSfiE  DISTRICT  121 

King's  Royal  Rifles  lines.  This  was  late  in  the 
afternoon ;  and  two  hours  afterwards  we  were 
called  out  and  taken  into  Quinchy.  On  the  way 
there  we  passed  the  Black  Watch,  who  were  billeted 
just  in  front  of  us  ;  they  were  preparing  to  enjoy 
New  Year's  Eve.  Arriving  at  Quinchy,  I  was  sent 
back  to  find  and  bring  up  the  other  Company  from 
their  present  trenches  to  join  the  Battalion,  which 
I  did.  They  fully  expected  to  be  taken  back  to 
billets,  for  they  were  in  a  terrible  condition,  as  it 
had  been  raining  all  day  long.  Therefore  I  did  not 
mention  the  place  to  which  we  were  bound.  For- 
tunately on  the  way  we  came  across  the  Medical 
Officer,  who,  on  seeing  the  state  they  were  in,  most 
of  them  suffering  badly  from  rheumatism,  would 
not  consent  to  let  them  join  up,  but  posted  those 
suffering  the  least  on  barricade  guard.  I  then 
joined  the  Regiment  on  the  road  at  Quinchy  near 
the  railway  track :  and,  advancing  along  its  side, 
the  Scots  Guards  taking  the  right,  we  succeeded  in 
driving  the  enemy  from  the  position  they  had 
gained  earlier  that  day,  and  occupied  the  trenches, 
where  we  stayed  all  next  day. 

On  January  the  first  some  shelling  and  artillery 
duels  took  place,  otherwise  it  was  calm. 

On    Saturday,    January   the    second,    we    were 


122  A   RESERVIST   IN  FRANCE 

relieved  by  the  1st  Brigade,  leaving  about  thirty 
men  on  barricade  guard  on  the  main  La  Basse"e 
Road.  We  went  back  into  Cambrin. 

On  Sunday  the  third  we  left  for  Beuvry,  three 
kilometres  to  our  rear  and  one  and  a  half  kilo- 
metres from  Bethune.  We  arrived  there  at  6.30 
p.m.,  and  went  into  billets.  A  lot  of  our  men  were 
sent  back  from  here  with  trench-feet,  which  we  then 
called  frost-bitten  feet ;  they  were  the  first  cases 
we  had  of  it.  On  Saturday,  January  the  second, 
ninety-four  N.C.O.'s  and  men  left  us,  and  next  day, 
Sunday,  thirty-four  more  went  off. 

On  Monday  the  fourth  we  rested,  enjoying  a  bathe 
and  change  of  linen  at  the  Girls'  College  in  Bethune. 

On  Tuesday  the  fifth  we  again  left  for  Cambrin 
and  relieved  the  King's  Royal  Rifles  from  the 
trenches,  Major  Powell,  who  had  joined  us  at 
Hazebruck,  going  away  sick.  We  arrived  at 
Quinchy  at  5.30  p.m.,  and  the  Regiment  took  over 
the  trenches  in  front  of  that  village,  two  Companies 
occupying  the  front  line,  one  Company  being  in 
support  behind  the  first  brick-stack  and  the  other 
in  reserve  behind  the  other  two  brick-stacks,  whilst 
Headquarter  Company  took  over  and  guarded  a 
culvert  running  from  the  road  under  the  railway- 
line  to  the  canal  bank. 


LA  BASSEE  DISTRICT  123 

That  night  and  during  the  next  day  little  hap- 
pened beyond  artillery  duels.  Around  this  sector 
of  the  line  snipers  were  very  prevalent. 

Thursday  the  seventh  was  a  wet  day  ;  nothing 
occurred  with  the  exception  of  a  German  mistaking 
his  way  in  the  early  hours  of  the  morning  and 
walking  into  our  machine-gun  emplacement.  He 
came  in  with  two  cans,  one  with  hot  water  and  the 
other  with  hot  tea.  The  boys,  after  making  him 
taste  a  little  of  each,  took  possession  of  them  for 
their  own  use.  On  being  taken  down  the  com- 
munication trench  this  German  had  the  audacity  to 
remark  that  our  trenches  were  very  dirty — not 
nearly  so  clean  as  theirs,  as  they  had  working 
parties  cleaning  up  each  day. 

On  Friday  the  eighth  there  was  a  great  deal  of 
shelling  on  both  sides  between  10  a.m.  and  11  a.m., 
and  also  a  heavy  cannonade  and  rifle -fire  during  the 
afternoon,  but  no  attack. 

On  Saturday  the  ninth  the  part  of  Headquarter 
Company  doing  guard  at  the  culvert  were  relieved, 
as  they  were  no  longer  required,  and  were  put  on 
fatigue  duty,  carrying  all  necessary  things  to  the 
firing  line,  to  save  the  men  in  the  firing  line  from 
becoming  continually  wet  through  walking  up  and 
down  the  communication  trench.  These  men 


124          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

continued  at  this  work  until  the  Regiment  was 
relieved,  retiring  at  night  into  a  cellar  at  Cambrin 
to  dry  their  clothes  as  best  they  might.  About 
1  p.m.  there  was  an  hour's  bombardment  of  the 
enemy's  lines. 

On  Sunday  the  tenth  there  was  a  terrible  bom- 
bardment, and  seven  men  of  each  Company  volun- 
teered to  capture  an  enemy's  machine-gun  ad- 
vanced post,  which  was  taken  very  successfully, 
with  only  slight  casualties  and  some  prisoners. 

Monday  the  eleventh  and  Tuesday  the  twelfth 
were  very  quiet,  with  the  exception  of  a  bombard- 
ment each  day. 

On  Wednesday  the  thirteenth  I  left  the  Regiment 
early  in  the  morning,  and  proceeded  to  Annequin, 
a  small  village  just  behind  Cambrin,  there  to  find 
billets.  We  found  a  draft  awaiting  us  there  of 
four  hundred  and  eighty  N.C.O.'s  and  men  and 
three  Officers,  and  the  Regiment  was  then  relieved 
by  the  2nd  Royal  Sussex,  going  to  Annequin  for 
rest,  and  staying  there  the  next  two  days. 

On  Saturday  the  sixteenth  we  fell  in,  in  the 
afternoon,  to  return  to  the  trenches  ;  but  before  we 
went  the  Brigadier  gave  us  a  few  words,  saying  : 
"  To-morrow,  Sunday,  January  the  seventeenth, 
is  the  Kaiser's  birthday,  so  be  on  your  guard,  as  we 


LA   BASSEE   DISTRICT  125 

are  expecting  an  attack  in  honour  of  it."  This 
attack  did  not  mature  :  the  day  was  one  of  the 
quietest  I  had  experienced  in  the  trenches.  A 
mistake  had  been  made  :  the  Kaiser's  birthday  is 
the  twenty-seventh  of  January. 

On  Monday  the  eighteenth  we  were  again  relieved 
by  the  2nd  Royal  Sussex,  and  returned  to  Anne- 
quin. 

Tuesday  the  nineteenth  we  spent  in  resting, 
going  into  the  trenches  again  on  Wednesday  the 
twentieth,  again  relieving  the  2nd  Royal  Sussex, 
who  took  our  billets  at  Annequin. 

On  Thursday  the  twenty-first  the  whole  Brigade 
was  relieved  by  the  1st  Brigade  ;  we  went  to 
Bethune,  where  the  1st  Brigade  had  just  completed 
eight  days'  rest.  I  was  then  on  the  staff  of  billeting 
orderlies,  and  helped  to  find  billets  at  that  town. 
It  was  a  very  unenviable  berth,  as  the  majority  of 
French  people  objected  to  have  soldiers  billeted  on 
them,  and  our  Officers  were  often  very  dissatisfied 
with  the  billets  we  found  for  them.  We  settled 
down  to  what  we  thought  was  to  be  an  eight -days' 
rest ;  but  early  on  Monday  morning,  January  the 
twenty-fifth,  the  enemy  began  to  shell  Bethune — 
the  first  occasion  on  which  it  was  shelled.  The 
Brigade  got  the  order  to  stand  to,  and  moved  out  of 


126          A   RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

Bethune  once  more  for  the  trenches,  after  having 
had  only  three  days'  rest  out  of  our  eight.  The 
report  was  circulated  that  the  enemy  had  broken 
through  on  the  right  of  La  Bassee  canal,  at  the 
brick-fields  at  Quinchy.  It  was  true  ;  they  had  got 
as  far  as  Quinchy  church,  and  had  penetrated  the 
village  itself,  only  to  be  blown  back  by  the  fierce- 
ness of  our  artillery  fire,  after  which  we  delivered  a 
counter-attack,  going  up  in  support  to  the  Highland 
Light  Infantry  5th  Brigade  2nd  Division,  who 
were  then  operating  around  that  district  in  con- 
junction with  the  1st  Division,  and  also  in  reserve 
to  the  3rd  Brigade.  We  did  not  on  this  occasion 
succeed  in  retaking  all  our  old  trenches  ;  we  lost 
one  of  the  three  the  enemy  had  succeeded  in 
taking,  and  we  lost  one  brick-stack.  Our  armoured 
train  was  in  action,  and  did  great  work  in  keeping 
the  enemy  back  whilst  reinforcements  were  brought 
up  ;  but  we  were  unfortunate  in  losing  the  engine- 
driver,  a  Belgian,  who  stopped  a  fragment  of  shell 
with  his  head  :  the  naval  men  in  charge  of  the 
train  buried  him  with  honours,  firing  the  last  volley 
over  his  grave.  That  night  we  returned  to 
Beuvry,  and  stood  to  in  case  of  another  assault. 

On  Tuesday,  January  the  twenty-sixth,  we  had 
an  unfortunate  experience.     It  took  place  at  the 


LA  BASSEE   DISTRICT  127 

time  when  the  Regiment  was  holding  orderly 
room.  Nearly  all  the  Company  Officers  and 
N.C.O.'s  were  attending,  besides  the  C.O.,  Ad- 
jutant, Machine-Gun  Officer,  Regimental  Sergeant- 
Major,  Pioneer  Sergeant,  Signalling  Sergeant, 
Police  Sergeant — in  fact,  every  one  of  note  in  the 
Regiment.  There  were  also  a  number  of  men  wait- 
ing to  be  told  off  for  various  crimes  ;  and  they 
were  holding  this  office  in  a  farmyard,  on  hard 
cobbled  stones,  when  a  shell  of  large  calibre  dropped 
amongst  them,  killing  and  wounding  close  on  forty 
Officers  and  men.  The  C.O.  and  Adjutant  had  a 
marvellous  escape,  as  the  shell  dropped  at  the  foot 
of  the  table  without  injuring  either  of  them,  whilst 
most  of  the  prominent  Officers  and  N.C.O.'s  were 
killed,  as  well  as  three  who  held  Distinguished 
Conduct  Medals.  That  afternoon  we  returned  to 
Quinchy,  D  Company  going  in  support  to  the  2nd 
Royal  Sussex. 

On  Wednesday  the  twenty-seventh  we  went 
into  the  trenches,  taking  up  bombs  in  readiness  for 
an  attack.  It  was  then  8.30  p.m.  We  found  that 
the  keep,  the  first  two  brick-stacks,  had  now 
become  our  firing  line. 

We  did  not  commence  the  attack  until  4  a.m.  on 
Thursday  the  twenty-eighth,  and  succeeded  in 


128          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

driving  the  enemy  out  with  bombs,  but  returned  to 
our  old  line  of  trenches,  where  we  received  some 
casualties.  During  that  day  we  returned  to 
Cambrin  to  billets  in  reserve  to  the  Sussex  and 
Northamptons. 

On  Tuesday  the  twenty-ninth  the  enemy  heavily 
attacked  the  keep  :  fully  1,500  Germans  got  out  of 
their  trenches,  and,  after  advancing  a  couple  of 
yards,  lay  down,  in  preparation  for  a  charge.  Our 
artillery  then  got  to  work,  and,  aided  by  our  rifle 
and  machine-gun  fire,  accounted  for  every  man, 
only  five  out  of  the  1,500  being  left,  and  these  we 
took  prisoner.  Very  excellent  work  was  done  that 
day  by  both  the  2nd  Royal  Sussex  and  the  North- 
ampton Regiments.  That  night  we  were  relieved 
by  the  Camerons  and  Black  Watch  1st  Brigade, 
and  returned  to  our  old  billets  at  Beuvry. 

Next  day,  Saturday,  January  the  thirtieth,  we 
returned  to  Bethune,  and  were  billeted  there  in  the 
Ladies'  College,  standing  to  at  a  half-hour's 
notice  if  required. 

There  we  also  spent  Sunday.  Next  day  I  set  off 
with  the  billeting  party  to  find  billets  at  a  small 
place  eight  kilometres  from  Bethune  and  near 
Choques.  After  we  had  arrived  there,  we  arranged 
billets,  when  a  Staff  Officer  came  up  and  ordered  us 


LA  BASSEE  DISTRICT  129 

to  return  to  Bethune,  as  the  enemy  had  once  more 
commenced  to  attack.  Half-way  on  the  road  back 
we  were  met  by  the  Brigade  despatch-rider,  who 
ordered  us  to  return  to  Allouagne,  the  village  where 
we  had  secured  the  billets.  All  this  time  there  was 
a  heavy  cannonade  going  on  in  the  direction  of  the 
trenches  ;  it  was  close  on  ten  miles  away — anyhow, 
the  attack  by  the  enemy  did  not  succeed,  and  we 
proceeded  as  usual. 

The  Regiment  arriving  here  the  next  day, 
Tuesday,  February  the  second,  we  were  joined 
by  a  new  C.O.,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Bowlby.  At 
Allouagne  we  rested  from  February  the  second 
until  the  twentieth  of  that  month,  having  a  similar 
time  and  doing  similar  work  to  that  which  we  had 
done  at  Hazebruck,  only  on  this  occasion  we  were 
not  troubled  by  aircraft.  We  were  joined  there  by 
the  5th  Sussex  Territorials,  making  in  all  five 
Regiments  to  the  Brigade  instead  of  four. 

On  February  the  twentieth  we  moved  a  little 
further  up,  about  one  kilometre  from  Allouagne. 
On  that  march  one  of  our  men  became  a  little  in- 
toxicated :  he  was  placed  between  an  escort.  On 
the  road  he  threw  his  rifle  away,  saying  :  "I'll 
fight  no  more."  Next  morning,  on  being  brought 
before  the  C.O.,  he  was  told  by  the  C.O.,  who  had 

K 


130          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

overheard  what  he  had  said  the  day  before,  that  he 
would  receive  fourteen  days'  field-punishment  and 
fight  on.  We  stayed  at  this  village,  Lozingham, 
for  eight  days,  leaving  on  February  the  twenty- 
eighth  for  Mont  Bernischon,  where  we  stayed  the 
night,  and  next  day  moved  on  to  a  small  village,  by 
name  Les  Choques.  All  this  time  we  were  really 
moving  back  to  the  trenches. 

On  March  the  second  five  of  our  men  were  over- 
come by  charcoal  fumes,  Quarter-Master-Sergeant 
Border  and  Private  Sailor  losing  their  lives. 

On  March  the  tenth  we  were  awakened  by  a 
terrific  bombardment  of  guns,  and  did  not  then 
know  that  the  Battle  of  Neuve  Chapelle  had  com- 
menced. We  were  hurried  off  from  our  billets  at 
Les  Choques  and  proceeded  along  the  Lowe  Canal 
to  Locon,  where  we  were  kept  until  the  afternoon, 
when,  crossing  the  canal  and  marching  to  the  right, 
we  went  on  to  Le  Touret.  That  night  we  stayed  in 
a  field  in  reserve,  but  at  ten  o'clock  went  into  billets. 

Next  day,  the  eleventh,  we  moved  higher  up  to 
just  behind  the  Rue-de-L'Epinette  and  occupied 
breastworks,  where  we  heard  the  report  of  the 
capture  of  2,000  Germans  and  six  guns. 

On  the  next  day,  the  twelfth,  we  again  returned 
to  Les  Choques  to  our  old  billets,  which  were  not 


LA  BASSEE  DISTRICT  131 

required.  We  did  not,  of  course,  take  full  part  in 
the  Neuve  Chapelle  battle,  but  were  there  in  reserve 
to  the  4th  Corps,  the  4th  Meerut  Division  taking  the 
bulk  of  the  work. 

On  March  the  twelfth  we  moved  to  Essairs,  to 
the  old  billets  we  had  occupied  on  Christmas  Day, 
and  renewed  many  old  acquaintances.  We  stayed 
there  five  days,  still  in  reserve  and  under  an  hour's 
notice. 

On  the  eighteenth  we  removed  nearer  to  La 
Bassee  canal  and  behind  Givenchy  to  a  place  named 
Goue.  This  time  we  found  working  parties  in  the 
trenches  between  Festubert  and  Givenchy. 

On  the  twenty-second  we  left  our  billets  at  Goue, 
and  removed  to  our  old  position  in  the  Rue-de- 
L'Epinette,  where  we  had  lost  so  many  of  our  men 
just  before  Christmas.  We  did  not  relish  going 
there.  I  wrent  as  orderly  to  the  Northamptons  in 
case  of  communication  being  cut  off  by  telephone, 
the  Northamptons  being  more  to  our  left  in  trenches 
at  the  Rue-de-Bois. 

On  the  twenty-third  we  were  relieved  by  the 
King's  Royal  Rifles,  and,  going  round  by  Richebourg 
St.  Vaast,  we  took  the  trenches  on  the  Rue-de-Bois, 
relieving  the  Indians.  These  trenches  were  really 
barricades  built  up  with  sandbags.  We  had  three 


132          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

companies  in  them,  and  one  in  reserve  in  billets 
behind.  We  found  there  another  implement  of 
torture  used  by  the  Germans,  a  three-pronged  steel 
or  iron  with  sharp  points  :  they  were  thrown  out  in 
front  of  the  trenches  for  men  to  step  on — it 
mattered  not  which  part  you  stepped  on  :  one  of 
the  prongs  would  be  sure  to  run  into  your  leg.  That 
night  we  had  one  Lieutenant  and  one  private  killed, 
and  about  thirteen  casualties  in  all.  We  were  in 
those  trenches  for  a  week,  until  the  thirtieth,  and  it 
was  one  of  the  quietest  spots  of  the  whole  line — 
scarcely  any  rifle  fire  and  little  shell  fire.  These 
trenches  are  linked  up  with  from  the  right  Givenchy 
at  the  La  Bassee  canal  end  ;  then  come  Festubert, 
Aubers  Ridge,  Port  Arthur,  and  Neuve  Chapelle, 
all  within  a  distance  of  five  miles. 

We  did  not  have  many  casualties  during  our  stay 
on  the  Rue-de-Bois,  and  returned  to  our  old  billets 
at  Les  Cheques  on  March  the  thirtieth,  resting  and 
refitting  until  April  the  seventh. 

On  April  the  eighth  we  marched  to  Neuve 
Chapelle,  and  occupied  the  trenches  at  Port  Arthur, 
a  portion  of  the  line  there  having  been  given  that 
name.  Another  spot  there  was  known  as  "  Windy 
Corner,"  on  account  of  its  treacherous  nature,  as  it 
was  under  a  cross  fire  from  the  enemy. 


LA   BASSEE   DISTRICT  133 

On  April  the  sixth  we  were  joined  by  a  new 
C.O.,  Colonel  Sanderson,  who  came  to  us  from 
the  2nd  Battalion,  which  was  then  serving 
in  East  Africa.  At  Port  Arthur  we  went  into 
reserve,  one  Company  occupying  the  dug-out  at  the 
rear  and  on  the  road.  From  this  road  our  En- 
gineers had  erected  a  wooden  track  and  wooden 
rails,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  by  trolleys  all 
necessities  for  the  trenches.  We  found  this  very 
useful  during  our  stay  here  of  four  days,  after 
which  we  were,  on  the  twelfth,  relieved  by  a 
Territorial  Division. 

We  then  proceeded  to  Mont  Bernischon,  for  three 
days'  rest,  leaving  that  village  for  Richebourg  St. 
Vaast,  where  we  occupied  billets  in  reserve.  Here 
I  left  the  Regiment  to  join  the  1st  Divisional  Head- 
quarters for  a  refresher  course  in  signalling,  as  that 
Regiment  was  at  that  time  short  of  these  specialists. 
I  remained  at  Locon  until  May  the  sixth,  when  the 
class  was  broken  up,  and  all  men  were  sent  to 
rejoin  their  respective  Regiments,  in  view  of  a  great 
advance  that  was  then  supposed  to  be  about  to  take 
place. 

During  the  time  I  was  with  the  class,  all  qualified 
signallers  and  Officers  of  the  Regiment  had  been 
attending  lectures  held  at  the  2nd  Brigade  Office 


184          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

to  learn  the  scheme  of  the  proposed  attack,  which 
was  to  be  commenced  by  a  huge  bombardment  of 
guns  on  a  front  of  less  than  two  miles.  Before  we 
left  our  billets  at  Les  Cheques  we  were  told  that  it 
was  to  be  the  greatest  bombardment  ever  known ; 
and  we  had  detailed  instruction  in  the  various  parts 
we  were  to  play.  We  were  all  under  the  impression 
that  we  were  going  to  have  an  easy  task  of  it,  as  we 
were  to  take  up  our  position  and  start  from  the 
Rue-de-Bois,  which  place  had  always  been  so  quiet 
when  we  occupied  it.  That  night  we  were  taken  to 
a  field  near  the  canal  at  Locon  expecting  to  proceed 
to  the  trenches  to  be  in  readiness  for  the  night ; 
however,  we  did  not  go  up,  and  stopped  there  all 
the  next  day,  May  the  sixth,  until  8  p.m.  We 
were  then  sent  back  to  billets  at  Les  Choques,  the 
advance  having  been  cancelled  for  forty-eight  hours. 
Thus  we  left  Les  Choques  on  May  the  eighth  in  the 
evening,  and  proceeded  to  the  Rue-de-Bois,  where 
we  occupied  the  reserve  trenches,  every  one  being  in 
and  ready  for  the  fray  at  3  a.m.  on  the  morning 
of  the  ninth. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   BATTLE   OF   FESTUBERT.    MAY   9TH,    1915 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   BATTLE   OF   FESTUBERT,    MAY   9TH,    1915 

THE  signal  for  the  bombardment  was  given  by  a 
big  gun  at  5.30  a.m.,  when  all  the  guns  commenced 
to  blaze  off.  It  was  just  as  if  all  hell  were  let  loose  ! 
The  German  trenches,  like  ours,  were  built  up  of 
sandbags  ;  and  within  five  minutes  they  repre- 
sented the  waves  of  the  sea  beating  against  the 
rocks.  Debris  was  flying  in  all  directions,  and  we 
men  stood  on  the  tops  of  our  trenches  to  see  the 
fun  ;  but  were  very  soon  down  again,  as  the  enemy 
during  the  whole  of  that  bombardment  repeatedly 
sniped  at  us.  and  had  the  impudence  to  shout  at 
us  :  "  Come  on — we've  been  waiting  for  vou  for 

^j  */ 

twenty-four  hours."  At  8  a.m.  the  bombardment 
ceased,  and  the  attack  commenced  in  earnest.  Our 
position  was  the  centre,  and  we  were  led  by  the  2nd 
Royal  Sussex,  followed  by  the  Northamptons, 
North  Lancashires,  5th  Royal  Sussex,  and  we  also 
had  the  9th  King's  Liverpools,  a  Territorial  Regi- 
ment that  had  recently  joined  our  Brigade.  They 

137 


138          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

were  in  reserve,  with  the  1st  Brigade  Black  Watch 
holding  the  front  line  whilst  we  attacked.  The 
distance  between  the  two  lines  of  trenches  was  not 
more  than  three  hundred  yards,  but  we  could 
advance  only  half-way  :  we  had  to  yield  to  the 
enemy's  machine-gun  fire.  Some  of  the  men  had 
to  lie  there  all  day  until  nightfall,  when,  at  11 
o'clock,  the  whole  of  the  2nd  Brigade  retired  to  the 
reserve  line  of  trenches  to  reorganize,  the  1st 
Brigade  still  holding  the  front  line.  We  accounted 
for  430  of  all  ranks,  not  including  machine-gun 
men,  who  were  still  in  position  in  the  front  line. 

Another  bombardment  was  commenced  again  at 
2  p.m.,  and,  going  into  the  front  line,  we  prepared 
for  another  attack.  Towards  4  p.m.  an  order  came 
through  for  the  North  Lancashires  to  stand  fast, 
and  the  Black  Watch,  sending  up  two  companies, 
took  our  places,  and  then  charged  the  enemy's 
lines.  After  repeated  attempts,  they  eventually 
got  into  their  trenches.  Words  cannot  describe 
that  glorious  piece  of  work — no  praise  could  be 
high  enough.  When  they  got  into  the  trenches 
the  Germans  took  their  rifles  and  equipment  from 
them,  and,  turning  them  out  unarmed,  told  them 
to  get  back  to  their  own  lines  the  best  way  they 
could,  turning  their  machine-guns  on  them  as  they 


THE  BATTLE  OF  FESTUBERT   139 

did  so.  We,  of  course,  dared  not  fire,  on  account 
of  the  possibility  of  hitting  our  own  men.  We  had 
the  misfortune  to  lose  our  Armourer  Sergeant,  who 
had  taken  part  in  the  charge  ;  also  three  Captains 
killed,  Captains  Hay,  Hill,  and  Adcock.  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Bowlby  was  wounded  ;  Lieutenant 
Fisher,  machine-gun  Officer,  killed ;  Lieutenant 
Garrod,  sniping  Officer,  killed  on  the  enemy's  barbed 
wire — altogether  we  lost  nearly  three  hundred  of 
all  ranks,  the  Northamptons  losing  more  than  we 
did,  and  the  whole  Division  losing  nearly  8,000 
men,  without  succeeding  in  taking  a  single 
trench. 

We  held  the  front  line  until  3  a.m.  of  the  morning 
of  the  ninth,  when  we  were  relieved  by  the  2nd 
Division  and  the  Highland  Light  Infantry,  5th 
Infantry  Brigade.  Proceeding  to  Le  Touret,  the 
Battalion  joined  up,  and,  after  calling  the  roll,  we 
marched  on  to  Lannoy,  there  to  rest. 

On  the  twelfth  of  May  we  left  Lannoy  and 
marched  to  Bethune,  where  we  occupied  billets  for 
four  days.  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  procure  a 
pass,  and  paid  a  visit  to  St.  Omer,  where  my  father 
was  stationed  with  a  Motor  Transport  Company. 
There  I  spent  two  very  enjoyable  days,  but,  on 
getting  back  to  Bethune,  I  found  the  Regiment  had 


140          A   RESERVIST   IN   FRANCE 

departed,  taking  with  them  my  rifle  and  equip- 
ment. They  had  not,  however,  gone  far — only  to 
Beuvry,  where  I  soon  found  them.  That  night  the 
47th  Territorial  London  Division  had  by  mistake 
taken  our  billets.  We,  of  course,  turned  them  out, 
upon  which  they  began  to  sing  : 

"  Though  the  North  Lanes  pinched  our  billets,  never  mind  ! 
We  have  slept  in  the  fields  before, 
And  we'll  do  the  same  as  of  yore, 
So  the  North  Lanes  can  have  our  billets — never  mind  !  " 

There  we  stayed  six  days,  finding  working  parties, 
etc.,  and  then  we  moved  up  to  Annequin  for  three 
days  in  reserve.  At  Annequin  there  was  a  coal- 
pit, which  was  shelled  each  day  and  nearly  every 
night,  although  the  civilians  still  occupied  it.  The 
church,  typical  of  churches  in  the  French  villages, 
came  under  the  enemy's  fire  first.  Just  behind  and 
in  rear  was  an  estaminet  run  by  two  French  girls. 
How  they  could  live  there  beats  me,  as  there  were 
three  large  shell-holes  in  the  walls,  and  a  corner 
had  been  knocked  off  the  house.  They  had  placed 
barrels  filled  with  earth  over  these  holes,  and 
carried  on  business  in  the  same  old  way,  making 
quite  a  good  living  from  the  English  troops  billeted 
there.  On  Sunday  afternoons  they  used  to  take 
walks  with  some  French  Officers  around  what 


THE  BATTLE  OF  FESTUBERT       141 

was  then  the  French  section  of  the  line  ;  our  line 
finished  on  the  left  of  the  La  Bassee  Road.  We 
stayed  here  four  days,  and  on  the  afternoon  of  May 
the  twenty-fourth  moved  into  the  trenches,  taking 
over  from  the  King's  Liverpools  the  right  of  La 
Bassee  Road,  originally  occupied  by  the  French. 
We  found  on  this  part  of  the  line  the  trenches  very 
good,  with  four  lines  of  them,  a  front  line,  a  support 
line,  and  a  reserve,  called  Maison  Rouge  :  there 
were  three  red-bricked  houses  in  this  line.  Some 
of  the  dug-outs  in  this  line  were  also  splendid,  con- 
taining beds  and  furniture  brought  by  the  French 
from  the  ruined  village  of  Cambrin  just  behind. 
Whilst  we  were  here  the  enemy  blew  up  a  mine,  but 
we  had  few  casualties.  In  this  village  we  had  our 
Transport  1st  Line,  and  also  the  Brigade  Office. 
The  Germans  were  quite  eight  hundred  yards  from 
us,  and  in  between  the  two  lines  was  an  aeroplane, 
English  or  French,  which  had  been  hit  and  brought 
down  by  the  enemy.  On  several  occasions  we 
went  out  at  night  to  try  to  bring  it  in  ;  but  we  found 
the  engine  had  been  buried  too  far  in  the  ground, 
and  all  we  could  do  was  to  take  away  parts.  One 
day  I  watched  a  man  go  out  in  broad  daylight  col- 
lecting German  helmets. 

We  were  relieved  on  the  twenty-eighth  by  the 


142          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

Regiment  which  we  had  relieved  four  days  before, 
the  9th  King's  Liverpools  ;  and  we  returned  to  our 
old  billets  at  Annequin.  Around  this  sector  of  the 
line  we  were  well  backed  by  the  famous  French 
75  gun. 

On  June  the  first  we  relieved  the  9th  King's 
Liverpools  from  trenches  at  the  brickfields  at 
Quinchy.  They  had  been  moved  from  the  trenches 
on  the  right  of  La  Bassee  Road  during  our  time  of 
reserve  to  those  at  the  brickfields.  We  had  a  rough 
time  here  for  three  days  :  the  enemy  exploded  two 
mines,  which  sent  up  the  largest  part  of  one  of  our 
Companies  (C  Company)  with  them.  We  were  also 
much  nearer  the  enemy  than  before,  and  were  con- 
tinually bombed. 

On  the  fourth  we  were  relieved,  and  proceeded 
to  Bethune,  where  we  were  billeted  in  a  school. 
The  very  first  night  we  were  again  shelled.  We 
spent  seven  days  here,  enjoying  the  luxury  of  a 
large  swimming-bath. 

On  June  the  eleventh  we  left  for  Cambrin  to 
relieve  the  1st  Brigade,  and  put  two  Companies  in 
reserve  on  the  left  of  the  road  and  in  rear  of 
Quinchy  and  one  on  the  right  of  the  road  at  Maison 
Rouge,  one  Company  being  in  billets  at  Cambrin. 
At  Maison  Rouge  we  had  a  transmitting  station  to 


THE  BATTLE  OF  FESTUBERT   143 

the  King's  Royal  Rifles,  and  from  the  2nd  Brigade 
Headquarters,  the  King's  Royal  Rifles  occupying 
the  front  line  on  the  right  of  the  road,  nicknamed 
"  Bomb  Alley,"  on  account  of  its  being  so  near  the 
enemy  and  continually  under  bombardment.  We 
used  sentries  on  each  traverse  to  look  out  for 
bombs  :  on  seeing  one  coming  and  at  what  position 
it  would  be  likely  to  drop,  the  sentry  would  yell  out 
"  Bomb  right,"  or  "  Bomb  left,"  as  the  case  might 
be,  when  the  men  would  at  once  clear  to  the 
opposite  direction. 

On  June  the  fourteenth  we  were  relieved  by  the 
2nd  Division,  and  left  for  Bethune,  where  we  went 
into  Corps  reserve  for  four  days. 

On  the  seventeenth  we  left  Bethune  for  La  Pug- 
noy,  there  to  rest :  whilst  here  we  received  a  draft 
of  183  Officers  and  men  who  had  been  transferred 
from  a  service  Battalion  of  the  Manchesters,  on 
account  of  the  shortage  of  our  own  reinforcements 
at  the  feeding  Battalion  then  at  Felixstowe. 

On  the  twenty-seventh  we  marched  to  Cambrin, 
a  distance  of  about  sixteen  miles,  having  our  dinner 
on  the  road  in  a  thunderstorm  ;  and,  on  entering 
the  trenches,  we  received  a  welcome  from  the 
Herts  Territorials,  who  had  decorated  the  fire- 
step  with  pieces  of  chalk  (these  trenches  were  of 


144          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

a  chalky  nature),  out  of  small  pieces  of  which  they 
had  built  the  words  :  "  Welcome  to  Kitchener's 
Army."  Fancy  what  the  reading  of  that  meant  to 
us  men,  some  of  whom  had  been  through  the  war 
since  the  very  commencement !  We  did  indeed 
feel  grateful,  and  we  had  cause  to  be  so,  as  we  were 
supposed  to  have  gone  back  to  La  Pugnoy  for  a 
Divisional  rest  and  were  expecting  at  least  a  month, 
whereas  we  got  only  three  days  of  it.  WThilst  at  La 
Pugnoy  several  Brigades  of  Kitchener's  Army  had 
passed  through  us  and  the  1st  Division,  those  of 
which  occupied  the  trenches  at  the  time  expected 
to  get  relieved  by  them.  However,  we  had  to  go, 
and  we  were  shelled  pretty  heavily  here  ;  we  had 
three  Companies  in  the  front  line,  and  D  Company 
in  reserve.  On  July  the  fourth  we  were  relieved 
from  the  trenches,  after  having  been  in  them  for  six 
days,  and  we  returned  to  Salle-la-Bourse.  We  had 
then  taken  over  trenches  in  front  of  Vermelles, 
and,  after  spending  a  few  days  at  Salle-la-Bourse, 
we  journeyed  two  kilometres  to  Noyelles  ;  from 
there,  four  days  afterwards,  we  again  occupied  the 
trenches  for  eight  days.  During  this  time  opera- 
tions were  very  calm,  and  all  around  the  district 
one  could  see  for  some  considerable  distance — 
from  Vermelles  one  could  see  the  "  Tower  Bridge  ' 


THE  BATTLE  OF  FESTUBERT   145 

at  Loos  ;  and  I  often  used  to  gaze  at  it  and  wonder 
when  it  would  become  our  property,  little  thinking 
that  my  hope  would  be  realized  within  a  couple  of 
months.  We  did  another  few  days  in  the  trenches, 
and  then  went  back  to  Verquin,  near  Bethune. 
The  observation  balloon  used  to  go  up  here  at  the 
back  of  the  village,  and  on  several  occasions  the 
enemy  shelled  it,  but  never  succeeded  in  hitting  it. 

On  July  the  twentieth  we  were  again  at  Noyelles, 
and  on  the  twenty-third  of  that  month  I  obtained 
leave  for  the  purpose  of  proceeding  to  England  for 
eight  days,  after  having  been  on  active  service  for 
a  period  of  nearly  twelve  months.  I  had  nearly  ten 
miles  to  walk,  fully  equipped,  to  the  railway  station 
to  get  my  train.  I  need  not  describe  my  brief  visit 
home  ;  needless  to  say  I  enjoyed  myself  never 
better  in  my  life. 

Arriving  back  at  Bethune  on  August  the  first,  we 
learnt  from  Headquarters  that  the  Regiment  were 
in  the  trenches  at  Vermelles,  and,  on  arrival  at  that 
place,  we  were  just  in  time  to  see  the  Battalion 
relieved,  and  had  to  march  back  that  same  night 
again  to  Bethune,  where  we  spent  eight  days,  the 
Division  holding  a  horse-show  and  sports. 

From  the  eighth  of  August  until  a  fortnight 
before  the  Battle  of  Loos  we  took  our  turn,  with 

L 


146          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

other  Regiments  in  the  Brigade,  to  go  into  the 
trenches  ;  and  a  fortnight  before  Loos  we  returned 
to  Lozingham  to  rehearse  the  coming  battle.  While 
at  Lozingham  we  did  Battalion  training,  and 
generally  prepared  ourselves.  I  had  become  some- 
what run  down  and  felt  fairly  bad  with  sickness, 
etc. ;  when  the  doctor  examined  me  he  found  I 
had  a  temperature  of  over  100.  He  asked  me  where 
I  felt  ill,  and  on  my  telling  him,  he  said  :  "  You 
ought  to  be  admitted  to  hospital,  but  I'm  afraid  I 
can't  do  that,  as  you  are  a  signaller  and  we  are  short 
of  signallers."  He  told  me  to  lie  down  in  my  billet 
and  rest.  I  was  like  this  for  nearly  a  week,  and  did 
not  feel  much  better  at  the  end  of  that  time  ;  but, 
as  we  were  again  on  the  move,  I  did  not  trouble  him 
any  more. 

It  was  on  September  the  twenty-first  that  we 
moved  to  Maries,  a  village  one  kilometre  from 
Lozingham.  On  the  twenty-second  we  marched 
to  the  trenches  at  Vermelles  in  readiness  for  the 
battle,  arriving  there  at  3  a.m.  on  the  twenty- 
fourth,  throughout  which  day  we  were  busy  teeing 
in  wires,  etc.,  in  readiness  for  our  run  to  the  German 
lines  on  the  morrow. 


CHAPTER  X 

LOOS 


CHAPTER  X 

LOOS 

THE  1st  Division  took  the  centre,  with  the  15th 
Scottish  Division  on  the  right  and  the  9th  Division 
on  the  left.  The  1st  Division  faced  a  part  of  the 
line  known  as  "  Lone  Tree,"  named  after  a  tree 
between  the  two  lines  and  the  only  one  there.  The 
Division  had  battle  Headquarters  at  Larutwar 
Farm,  and  Brigade  Headquarters  in  a  part  ot  the 
trenches  known  as  "  Daly's  Keep."  At  6.40  a.m. 
on  the  morn'ng  of  the  twenty-fifth  of  September 
the  attack  was  to  be  launched,  first  by  the  Royal 
Engineers  letting  off  asphyxiating  gas  ;  when  that 
reached  the  German  lines  or  was  three  parts  of  the 
way  across,  the  Infantiy  were  to  follow.  Of  the 
2nd  Brigade  the  1st  Loyal  North  Lancashires  and 
the  King's  Royal  Rifles  were  the  two  Regiments 
selected,  and  to  them  was  given  the  honour  of  going 
over  first,  the  King's  Royal  Rifles  on  the  right. 
Punctually  at  the  time  given  the  gas  was  let  off, 
accompanied  by  smoke  bombs,  but  unfortunately 
before  it  had  reached  half  ihe  distance  across,  the 

149 


150          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

wind  changed  and  blew  it  back  upon  us.  However, 
over  we  went,  and,  as  our  distance  to  the  enemy's 
lines  was  quite  eight  hundred  yards,  we  covered 
them  by  short  rushes.  On  reaching  the  enemy's 
wire  entanglements  we  found  that  they  had  not 
been  sufficiently  damaged  to  admit  of  our  access  to 
the  enemy's  trench ;  so  we  held  on  for  reinforce- 
ments, which  arrived  in  the  form  of  the  2nd 
Royal  Sussex  ;  but  we  could  not  make  headway 
against  the  enemy's  machine-guns,  although  the 
Divisions  on  our  left  and  right  had  advanced  a  con- 
siderable distance.  A  Brigade  consisting  of  several 
Territorial  Regiments  in  the  Division  was  then 
sent  to  our  aid,  and  this  time  we  got  through,  taking 
several  hundred  prisoners.  The  Divisions  on  the 
left  and  right  of  us  had  advanced,  the  enemy 
opposed  to  them  had  retired  and  were  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  cut  off,  so  they  had  perforce 
to  surrender.  This  gave  us  practically  a  clear  run  of 
about  half  a  mile,  and  we  saw,  as  we  passed,  that  our 
objective  at  the  chalk-pit  was  the  village  of  Loos  on 
our  left.  Fighting  in  Loos  village  was  very  furious 
indeed.  This  chalk-pit  is  situated  on  the  Loos-Lens 
road,  and  on  the  left  of  it  is  a  wood,  where,  after 
charging  through  it  for  spare  Germans,  we  dug  in. 
At  4  a.m.  on  the  morning  of  the  twenty-sixth 


MAP  6. 


LOOS  158 

we  were  relieved  by  the  21st  Division  of  Kitchener's 
Army,  as  we  had  obtained  our  objective.  We  went 
back  to  our  old  original  trenches,  leaving  the  21st 
Division  to  carry  on.  Our  ranks  were  sadly  de- 
pleted, having  lost  many  men  :  it  was  an  awful  and 
ghastly  sight  coming  back  over  the  ground  we  had 
taken.  About  two  o'clock  that  afternoon  we 
heard  that  the  21st  Division  were  not  doing  well, 
and  that  a  couple  of  field-batteries  which  had  taken 
up  position  immediately  behind  the  old  German 
front  line  had  been  put  out  of  action,  as  well  as  two 
batteries  to  the  right  of  Larutwar  Farm,  which 
was  packed  from  end  to  end  with  wounded,  waiting 
to  be  taken  away.  The  motor-ambulances  worked 
night  and  day. 

Soon  after  this,  the  24th  Division,  another  of 
Kitchener's  Divisions,  came  into  action  to  relieve 
the  21st,  very  few  of  whom  remained.  This 
Division  stopped  in  for  nearly  twenty-four  hours, 
and  retook  some  of  the  ground  that  the  21st  had 
lost.  The  afternoon  before  the  Guards  Division, 

fresh  from ,  where  they  had  been  in  training, 

and  the  New  Welsh  Guards  also  went  into  action, 
making  an  attack  on  the  Hohenzollern  Redoubt. 
They  did  good  work,  I  believe,  in  taking  part  of  it. 

On  the  night  of  the  twenty-seventh  we  were 

M 


154          A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

ordered  out  from  our  old  line  to  the  old  German 
support  line  in  reserve  ;  but  next  morning  were 
taken  out  again  and  sent  back  to  Mazingarbe,  a 
small  village  behind  Vermelles.  We  had  eight 
hours'  rest  here,  and  that  same  night  proceeded  to 
the  recently  captured  village  of  Loos,  where  were 
packed  piles  of  dead  Germans  and  men  of  the  15th 
Scottish  Division.  It  was  indeed  an  ugly  sight. 
From  one  cellar  we  turned  out  twenty  Germans,  and 
we  also  took  one  who  had  been  working  an  under- 
ground telephone.  We  spent  one  night  in  this 
cellar,  and  the  following  night  proceeded  through 
the  village  to  Hill  70,  where  we  filled  a  gap  and  dug 
a  line  of  trenches,  digging  most  of  the  time  through 
solid  chalk.  While  there  we  were  heavily  shelled, 
as  also  was  Loos,  where  houses  were  crashing  to  the 
ground  every  few  minutes. 

Three  days  afterwards  we  were  relieved  by  a 
French  Division  and  went  back  to  Neaux-le  Mines 
for  a  well-earned  five-days'  respite.  After  that  we 
were  put  into  the  trenches  at  Vermelles,  and  on 
October  the  tenth  the  enemy  made  a  determined 
attack  on  the  9th  King's  Liverpools  and  Gloucesters 
3rd  Brigade,  to  whom  we  had  then  been  attached. 
The  enemy  were  well  driven  off,  but  both  regiments 
had  to  be  taken  out  that  night,  and  we  went  up  in 


LOOS  155 

the  place  of  the  King's  Liverpools,  and  were  situated 
in  our  old  trenches  near  the  chalk-pit.  Here, 
on  the  morning  of  the  eleventh  of  October,  we  were 
badly  shelled  :  we  lost  a  machine-gun  team  and  the 
gun  was  knocked  out.  I  was  then  ordered  to  take 
a  message  into  Loos  village  to  the  3rd  Brigade 
Office,  requesting  them  to  send  up  another  gun- 
team  at  once. 

Coming  back  from  this  message  I  received  my 
wound,  getting  a  nasty  knock  through  the  leg, 
severing  the  arteries  and  smashing  the  bone.  After 
binding  it  tightly,  I  managed  to  make  my  way  to 
the  first-aid  dressing-station,  a  distance  of  nearly  a 
mile  and  a  half.  Thence  I  proceeded  to  Mazin- 
garbe,  but,  owing  to  haemorrhage,  I  did  not  get 
my  wound  dressed  until  I  was  sent  back  to  Lozing- 
ham,  where  I  was  sent  to  the  operating  tent  of  the 
23rd  Field  Ambulance.  Whilst  awaiting  my  turn, 
I  watched  the  surgeons  take  from  another  man's 
knee  a  bullet.  Two  days  later  I  was  sent  to  Rouen, 
where  I  spent  ten  days  ;  from  there  I  came  home  to 
Salisbury  Infirmary,  and  I  was  in  this  hospital  for 
twelve  weeks  undergoing  three  operations.  I 
was,  on  becoming  convalescent,  sent  to  the  Red 
Cross  Hospital,  Salisbury ;  and  here  I  spent  another 
month,  and  proceeded  at  the  end  of  that  time  to  the 


156  A  RESERVIST  IN  FRANCE 

house  of  Sir  Vincent  Caillard  at  Wingfield.  At  this 
house  I  was  given  massage  twice  a  day  ;  and  after 
a  month  was  sent  on  to  Sutten  Veney.  After  three 
weeks  I  was  given  my  discharge,  and  proceeded  to 
the  depot  in  Lancashire,  where  I  finally  signed  my 
papers  and  re-entered  back  to  civilian  life  after 
having  had  one  year  and  246  days  on  active  service. 

The  1st  Division  on  landing  in  France  consisted 
of  three  Infantry  Brigades,  comprising  : 

1st  Brigade 

Grenadier  Guards. 

Coldstream  Guards. 

Royal  Highlanders  (Black  Watch). 

Munster  Fusiliers. 

2nd  Brigade 

1st  Loyal  North  Lancashire  Regiment. 
2nd  King's  Royal  Rifle  Corps. 
2nd  Royal  Sussex  Regiment. 
2nd  Northampton  Regiment. 

3rd  Brigade 
The  Welsh  Regiment. 
South  Wales  Borderers. 
Queen's  Royal  West  Kents. 
Gloucester  Regiment. 

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